


You Are (Not) My Rebound

by chaosmajikstar



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Break Up, Eventual Levi/Eren Yeager, Explicit Language, Levi-centric (Shingeki no Kyojin), M/M, Not evil Erwin, Past Levi/Erwin Smith, Past Relationship(s), Slow Build, Unrequited Love, levihan brotp, minor armin/annie, minor moblit/hanji, minor oluo/petra - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2015-01-26
Packaged: 2018-02-07 15:36:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 40,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1904421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaosmajikstar/pseuds/chaosmajikstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything had its place; everything was in the right order. Levi was in control, or at least he used to be until he came home to Erwin ready to walk out on him. Then Hanji introduces him to a certain Eren Jaeger and fuck it all, his life wasn't supposed to go like that. Spontaneity wasn't his thing and Levi was going to fight tooth and nail to keep what little control, and pride, he had left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have about half a clue as to what I'm doing with this. The idea started with "I want to read a fic where Erwin breaks up with Levi but they don't hate each other and neither one of them are the bad guy" and it turned into me writing this. It will focus on Levi more than Ereri, especially at the beginning, but that's all I really have planned.  
> I think that I'll update weekly, especially since these chapters shouldn't be too long. If you spot any mistakes feel free to point them out or message me on my tumblr catmadeofstars :)  
> I hope you enjoy!

Levi had never considered himself a strong person, no matter what everyone else told him. He was cold, socially inept, prideful, and he could go on, but he had thought that was enough. He had friends he could trust, an adopted family and someone he loved. That  _had_ been enough for so long.

"I hope you understand why I'm doing this, Levi," Erwin said in that soothing fucking voice. "It's time for us both to move on." Levi didn't answer immediately; he couldn't look Erwin in the eye. He wanted to laugh and cry and shout, but he just sat on the couch, still in his work clothes. 

"I understand." A bold fucking lie. Silence stretched between them, but Levi wasn't about to break the tension. He just stared straight ahead, for once thankful for his poker face. His pride was the only thing keeping him together. Why couldn't Erwin see that?

"I hope we can still be friends after this, with no bitter feelings." Don't break down. Never let him see you weak. He didn't have  _that_ privilege, not anymore. Levi didn't move as Erwin grabbed the last of his things, set the key on the dining room table, and walked out. 

Levi counted to a hundred, then started again, and again, until he was sure Erwin was gone for good. He swallowed past the lump in his throat and stood. Methodically, he locked the door back, the one thing he could focus his mind on doing.  

Six years. Levi pushed his hair back out of his eyes. Six years where he had been content and happy and not alone. Levi picked up the keys and hung them back on the wall where they belonged. Six years with Erwin fucking Smith. He looked around what had been their apartment, everything--even the old armchair that Erwin loved and Levi hated--still seemingly in its place.  

Six years of being in love thrown away and invalidated because Erwin fucking Smith thought that what they had had never been love, Erwin fucking Smith had never been in love with Levi and thought the feeling was mutual. Levi leaned against the wall, pressing his hand against the bridge of his nose. Erwin didn't know shit. 

Tears were stinging at his eyes, swirling nausea in his stomach, but he wasn't going to break down, not over a stupid break up. Don't give them the satisfaction. Stay in control. He was just overreacting. He needed normalcy, something that wasn't spinning out of control around him. Levi heaved a shaky sigh. 

He reached into his pocket for his phone, dialing the long ago memorized number. He strummed his hand against the wall, creating an impatient rhythm. He had nearly given up on the call, going so far as to attempt to wrack his brain for anyone else to call when he finally connected. 

"Took you long enough to call, Bro," Isabel said out of breath. There was some shuffling on the other side. "It's been like a month." 

"Did you just run to the phone," Levi asked. His frown deepened at the hoarseness in his own voice. He prayed to any sort of higher power that she didn't notice. 

"She ran, jumped, and did a nose dive off the couch," Farlan said. "You know she's gonna brag for the rest of the month that you called her and not me right?" 

"Damn right I am." Levi could practically see her puff out her cheeks with pride, and he wanted to laugh, but his throat was still far too constricted to do more than just talk. 

"Watch you language Isabel." He could hear her retort coming and decided to counter before she could finish. "I don't care how old you are; I still don't want to hear my baby sister develop a fucking potty mouth." He slid to the floor, holding the phone like his last lifeline. 

"I get it from you anyway," She muttered. 

"Anyway," Farlan said before the two could get into an argument--which always consisted of crude language and low blows--"how are things doing on your side of the country?" 

"Same as always," Levi said a beat too late. "You're both starting a new semester soon, right? What classes are you taking?" There was a moment of silence, a second where they all knew something was wrong, but then Farlan started talking about his classes and Levi silently thanked him. Even if they lived across the country from each other, Farlan was still his best friend and knew exactly when not to pry.  

They had been raised together, all three of them, in the same orphanage, and later when Levi and Farlan were sixteen, Isabel fourteen, and the state wanted to separate them, they had run away together. Both of them knew not to press his buttons, but Isabel always tried at least once. He had spoiled her after all. 

They knew his past and they knew about his relationship. But unlike every other friend he had, they didn't see him as an accessory to Erwin. He could talk to them without Erwin ever having to be brought up at all. 

When he finally got off the phone, after two hours of thankfully pointless conversation, Levi almost felt as normal as he had sounded. But as he stood, far past ready to take a shower to go the fuck to sleep, he found that his feet couldn't move. The bedroom leered at him, mocking him with everything that it meant. This had been  _their_  apartment that they had gotten together. They shared the drawers the bathroom, and the bed. Everything in the room, from the green sheets that they had compromised on, to the reading lamp on Levi's side of the bed for the nights when he couldn't sleep.  

And if he was totally, completely honest with himself, it wasn't seeing the proof of their relationship that scared Levi into staring down the door--it was the fear that it wouldn't be there anymore. Levi bit his lip and reached for the doorknob, only to set his arm down in the next second. 

He took a step away from their bedroom, and went to sleep in the guest room instead. 

 

Waking up felt like a shit that only came out in short unsatisfying bursts.  It took one second to acknowledge the obnoxious knocks at the door, two to realize he was alone, three to remember that Erwin had left him, four to realize that the guest bed had left his back aching, five to open his eyes, and six to ten to finally roll himself out of bed. The knocking was still happening at the front, and Levi was damned sure he was going to kill whoever it was. 

“Levi,” came the whining voice, “I know you’re there. I saw your car in the parking lot.” 

Yeah, he was going to kill Hanji, just as soon as he could focus.  

Levi stumbled through the living room and flung the door open. Hanji froze, staring at him. 

“Were you asleep?” 

“What the fuck does it look like I was doing, shitface.” Levi continued to mumble profanity under his breath as Hanji trailed behind him into the apartment. He eyed the kettle, but turned to the coffee maker instead. The taste might be shit, but coffee was easier, faster, and far more caffeinated than tea, and he needed anything he could get if he had to deal with Hanji just after waking up. 

“You’re making coffee?” 

“Why the fuck are you here at god knows what time it is?” Levi countered, running his hand through his hair. Hanji made a choking noise behind him and he spun around to see her gaping. “Are you okay?” He was genuinely worried for her wellbeing. Obviously something in her already malfunctioning brain had completely disconnected. He didn't want to deal with a deranged woman on top of everything else. 

“Are  _you_  okay?” Her voice lowered to human pitches, and fuck him, she knew. "It's noon Levi. You usually don't sleep past six, even on your days off. Also you hate coffee." 

"I never said I hate it." 

"You literally complain when you even get a whiff of the stuff." Hanji narrowed her eyes at him. "Did you take a shower last night?" 

"Fuck off with the twenty questions." Levi opened the cabinet with more force than necessary. He was being a jerk, but he really couldn't give a shit. And he was not about to admit how deeply Erwin had gotten to him. 

"Sorry, sorry," Haji raised her hands in mock surrender, "I got a little carried away." 

Levi grunted in reply, taking two mugs down. 

"But you didn’t answer my question?" She winced, her tone apologetic. 

He shot her a glare, tempted to kick her out. Well, he wasn't that much of an asshole. "I worked a double shift yesterday; I was too fucking tired to take a shower." Not totally lying. 

"Levi," Fuck it all she was whining at him again, "first of all you know that's not the question I was talking about, and second that's just the symptom of a bigger problem. You never ever, ever skip showers, especially after a working, unless you totally feel like total shit, like constipated diarrhea total shit." 

Levi almost smiled at that, and in any other situation he would have countered with his own shit joke, but this day was turning out just as well as his last. "I was a little out of it yesterday," he admitted, "but I'm better now." 

Levi poured them both a cup, handing Hanji her cup black, while he searched the fridge for some creamer to dilute the bitter taste. Silence from Hanji would only last until she finished analyzing him, prepping herself for another question. He honestly hated her quiet far more than her constant chitter, that he enjoyed on good days and could tune out without her getting offended on bad days. Her silence always led up to some sort of explosion. 

He had barely sat down at the table, across from Hanji, before she opened her mouth to begin. 

"This might make you angry--" 

"but you're going to say it anyway," Levi murmured under his breath. 

She paused, smiling at him, "but I'm gonna say it anyway. What exactly happened between you and Erwin? I mean, neither of you seemed like you were unhappy or anything, and you've been together for so long...I was a little blindsided." 

"You and me both." 

"Wait, what?" 

Levi sighed. "I got home from my double shift. Erwin already had his things packed up ready to go. He said bye and left." 

"That's it?" She was half-smiling, waiting for the punch line. "You're not telling me anything here Levi." 

He huffed out a breath of air. "He went on a spiel about how it was better for the both of us, blah blah, we weren't ever really in love,  blah blah, we can still be friends, blah blah, and left." 

She blinked at him. "So you didn’t say anything?" 

Levi shrugged. "His mind was made up. I wasn't about to make a fool of myself." 

"But Levi--" 

"Hanji, stop." Levi downed the rest of the coffee, not caring that it burned his tongue and throat. "It's over and done with. Now let me take a shower so I can go about with my life." He stood, but as he neared the bedroom door his steps slowed. All the uninterested, unaffected bravado he had been fooling himself--but mostly Hanji--with disappeared. He wasn't weak, but he wasn't strong either. 

And right there at that moment, facing a room full of memories, good memories that Levi had thought would last forever, even his damned pride couldn't keep him together. 

"Did Erwin really tell the truth? Was it really a mutual break up between you two?" Her voice was soft and caring, and shit she was too good of a friend to fool. She knew exactly what he needed, and didn't want. 

"No," his voice broke, but he didn’t turn back to look at her. "He left and broke my damned heart." 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji refuses to leave, and in turn, leave Levi alone. It's either go along with her horrible ideas or deal with the consequences of her whining.

Levi swung the door open, and slammed it behind him. Hanji knew when not to pry and a closed door was definitely a clear sign that she should leave him alone. Levi waited with his back to the door and his eyes closed, until he was one hundred percent sure that she wouldn't try to follow him. No turning back. Never too soon to face your goddamn irrational fears. 

The ornate mahogany end table that had been Erwin's Grandfather’s, Levi expected to be gone, so he focused on the empty space there first. It said something about his standards of cleaning, that there wasn't any discoloration in the carpet. He walked towards the bookshelf, two rows completely empty, and the rest of the books leaning awkwardly trying to fill the empty spaces. Levi had wanted to read some of those books, but he didn't dwell on, instead he moved on, swinging open the door of their closet. Erwin was the one who wanted the walk in, because Erwin had enough designer suits to clothe the entire city. Now only Levi's little corner remained, barely there at all. 

He closed the door softly, resting his head against the cool wood. His hands were fisted at his side, and fuck it all he just wanted to punch the wall in. He needed to stay in control, but instead Levi stomped over to the dresser, and pulled all five of the drawers out, clothing falling messily on the floor. Erwin had been meticulous and neat. Nothing of his remained, not even the stupid landscape painting he had insisted on hanging up as decoration. The extra phone charger was gone. The three laptop bags stacked neatly against the door were gone.  

Levi's blood ran cold as he swallowed thickly. 

Levi climbed on the bed to peer at the top of the bookcase. Erwin had moved the photo album after Levi had complained that there were too many stupid pictures of him in it. Levi had wanted to destroy it. But now looking at the empty space left behind, Levi wanted nothing more than to have some sort of proof of their time together. 

 _"It's time for both of us to move on."_  

His breathe was too rapid, his heart going too fast.  Levi sat on the bed hard, and pinched the bridge of his nose. It was a break up. Worse things had happened in his life, and he had dealt with that, but still, he couldn't stop the doubt, the nagging insecurity. Well, he wasn't going to deal with it.  

Levi took a deep breath and stood, heading towards the bathroom to take a fucking shower. 

 

What. The. Fuck. What the literal fuck. Levi took back any nice things he had thought about Hanji, as he stared her down. She was still sitting on his couch. She was still in his apartment. She was eating popcorn and laughing as she watched fucking Chopped on his TV. And fuck half of the popcorn she stuffed into her mouth fell out. 

"Get out." He picked up the remote and promptly shut off the TV. 

"Buei" she whined, her mouth still full. Levi moved the bowl off her lap and pulled her up by her arm, leading her to the door. He had no clue what she had said, but that wasn't of any importance to him. 

"Go away Hanji. Normal people with normal decency would have left--" he paused, leaning his head to peer at the clock in the kitchen, or the clock that used to be in the kitchen. He winced and finished his sentence with half as much hostility. "--would have left hours ago. I don't feel like dealing with your shit right now." 

"They were on the dessert round. I'm too heavily invested to leave now." 

Levi stopped in his tracks, the door halfway open, to stare at her. Her eyebrows were drawn down, mouth in a petulant pout. He let go of her wrist and covered his face with his hands. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" 

"It was a really good episode and I'm hungry?" 

"Even more reason to leave then." He held the door wide open, waving her off. 

"But we're going out to dinner later." 

"You're mixing up your fantasies with reality again, shit face. 

"I didn't actually come here to hound you about your relationship problems, you know." She shrugged. "I was going to invite you to have a few drinks and dinner, and I tried calling you, but your phone went straight to voicemail, and then I ran into Erwin as I was leaving the hospital, and well," she rubbed the back of her neck, "I got a little worried about you." 

Fuck. How was he supposed to kick her out after that? He closed to door slowly, still glaring at her. "I'm not going to dinner with you and Moblit." 

"Moblit couldn't come; he owed Mike a favor and is covering his shift." She flashed him a grin and ran back into his living room. "Ah, I forgot about Chopped." Levi slowly followed after her. There was no point in trying to have a conversation with her while she was distracted. Actually there was no way to have a coherent conversation with the woman unless it was about a body sitting on the autopsy table. And even then, most of it was rambling that Levi tuned out. 

He sat down in the armchair--no fucking way he was sitting on the couch with that mess--and waited. Hanji continued talking to him throughout the rest of the episode, mostly consisting of complaints that she had missed the best part, and how exactly was she watching while talking to him? 

"So, since you're not saying anything does that mean you're going?" 

"Huh?" He turned to her, "What did you say?" 

"You should stop insulting my intelligence," she said as she turned her head to the side, "if you can't even follow along." 

"Please, for once in your life, just get to the point Hanji." 

"I already told you we're going to dinner." 

"You've literally hung around me all day. Why the hell do we have to have dinner together too?" 

"This and that have nothing to do with each other." She spoke as though she was talking with a child and Levi was losing patience quickly. 

"My fucking question still stands." 

"A student from SAU is going to be shadowing me on Monday, and I invited him out for dinner and some drinks." 

"Do you even know if the kid's legal?" 

"He's a junior, and besides I told him to invite a friend." She sighed dramatically and flopped down on the couch. "I can't go alone." 

"So invite someone else," he deadpanned. 

"But the kid's interested in morgue work and no one else works in the morgue." 

"Hanji," he said warningly, "I don't want to go  _anywhere._ "  

"Going out will be good for you. Get your mind off of things." 

"I never want to go out." 

"So make a change." She stared at him and he glared back. He wasn't going. He would not give in on this. 

"When and where?" He sighed defeated in their battle of wills. 

"Ah, thanks Levi!" She sprung forward, taking both his hands in hers. "We're going to Maria's at eight." 

Levi pulled his hands away and immediately went to wash them in the kitchen sink. While he scrubbed, he peered over to the microwave's clock. It was only four. 

"You're not leaving are you?" He already knew the answer. 

"Nope; the next episode is starting." 

 

After three more episodes of Chopped, Hanji whining that he wasn't dressed properly--he didn't understand why he needed more than jeans and a t-shirt--and a short argument about whose car they we taking--there was no way in hell he was getting anywhere near the bio waste that was Hanji's car--they were finally waiting in a booth for the kid whose name he didn't even know. 

"He's late," Levi mumbled as he took a swig of his water. 

"It's not even eight yet," Hanji side eyed him, "and I already told you there are two of them." 

"That's--" 

"They're here," Hanji shouted as she stood, waving to two literal kids walking over to them. Levi stared them down as they sat, but it was really fucking hard not to. The short blonde looked like the med student he probably was, from the embarrassing bowl cut and glasses, to the way he refused to meet anyone's eyes. The only similarity between the two brats was the length of their hair. 

Levi wrinkled his nose. His hair was a bird's nest; he had even gotten the color right. A lip piercing and three in both ears and Levi had him pegged for a punk. A punk with an innocent face and wide green eyes that said he hadn't done anything worse than steal twenty dollars out of his mom's wallet and then cried about it. 

"And this is the hospital's morgue manager Levi," Hanji had settled back down beside him, and oh fuck he had probably missed both their names. 

"This is my friend Eren," the blonde gestured to the punk as they sat. "It's nice to meet both of you." Well, one name out of two wasn't bad. It was better than he usually did anyway. 

"So Armin what's your major?" Hanji asked excitedly. "Biology? Physics? Health Sciences? Biomed?" 

Two for two. Now all Levi had to do was remember the stupid names. 

"I'm a double major actually," Armin smiled at the table, "Biomed and Criminology." 

"Ohhh, do you want to work in criminal forensics, or are you preparing to become a serial killer?" She was completely serious.

"Hey shit face," Levi interjected, "don't ask weird questions like that. People might get the wrong idea." 

"No, it's fine." Armin pulled at his hair.  "I honestly don't know what I want to do, morgue work seems interesting though." 

"It's the best. We--" Hanji seemed about ready to go on a rant, her eyes fucking sparkling with excitement. Levi kicked her in the shin before she could start and looked at the other kid. 

"What's your major?" Maybe if he had been in a better mood, then he would have faked interest, but he couldn't give two shits about impressing kids with his socialization skills. Or lack therefore of.

"Why don't you guess?" The brat flashed him a cocky smile, leaning towards him. Levi almost got the urge to laugh. Two could play the intimidation game. 

"High school dropout then?" Levi raised his eyebrows, daring him to challenge it. 

"Wha-? No!" Eren crossed him arm and looked at his friend pleadingly. "Do I really look like a dropout?" 

Armin shrugged. "You did set yourself up for that."  

"Now that's something you shouldn't say," Hanji punched him on the shoulder. Levi was tempted to punch her back, especially since she had already downed one drink and ordered another, but he decided not to scare the blonde more than necessary. 

"Let's see now," Hanji continued, "You don't look like a pre-medical student. Education?" 

"He's too," Levi looked him up and down, "out there for that." 

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Eren was definitely glaring at him now. 

"Exactly what it sounds like," Levi deadpanned. Before the brat could do anything though, the blonde elbowed him in the ribs. 

"Be nice Eren." 

"But--" Armin finally looked up from the table to give Eren a searing glare. Levi raised his eyebrow, but decided to back down. He was being sort of a dick to some poor kid, even if the brat made it stupidly easy. 

"No, not Education," Eren mumbled, "or Premed." 

"Hmm," Hanji was still considering her options as though nothing had even happened. Typical of the idiot. "Something artsy?" 

"You could say that." 

"History?" Hanji ruffled her hair. "No wait, Fine Arts?" 

"No and no," Eren smiled once again entertained by the game he had set up. 

"How is History artsy?" Levi wondered aloud. He honestly had lost what little interest he had in the conversation after five minutes. He wanted to go home and...Actually dinner was fine because dinner was saving him from thinking about who wasn't waiting for him. That was a punch in the gut he did not need.

"I'm just naming all the classes I nearly failed," Hanji said. “Why don't you make a guess?" 

"Yeah, make a guess, Levi." The kid was actually challenging him with that stupid smug smirk on his face. Levi opened his mouth to make a retort, but the waitress interrupted them with their food. The conversation moved on, and once Blondie asked Hanji about what a pathologist does, she couldn't be stopped. Although, listening to Hanji talk about her job was boring, listening to Hanji talk about her job while slowly getting wasted was slightly more amusing. 

Except when it came to the end of the night and he was forced to lug a drunk woman back to his apartment. On the way back he made a disastrous call to Moblit--which consisted of drunk Hanji telling the man how much she loved him--and once he made it back into the apartment he sighed. 

Before, Erwin would have helped him deal with Hanji, laughing in that perfect voice the whole time. But all he had was a dark apartment and a drunken friend on his back. Levi hesitated for a moment, and promptly dumped her in the master bedroom. He grabbed an extra towel and pajamas, made sure Hanji was comfortable and closed the door behind him. 

After taking a shower, he laid back in the uncomfortable guest room, staring at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and realized that he had never figured out that kid's major, if he even had one./

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is ninety percent Levi and Hanji, with just a dash of Eren. Sorry not sorry, but LeviHan is my brotp and I love writing the two. Also, Levi is perpetually angry this chapter and that won't be changing any time soon. Poor guy.  
> Some notes on this: SAU stands for SIna Academic University. Levi and Hanji both work in the hospital morgue. Hanji as the pathologist (the person who does the autopsies) and Levi as the Morgue Manager (oversees the morgue technicians and assists with the autopsies).  
> I don't really know a lot about hospitals or morgues for that matter so if there's any blaring issues with it, please tell me :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi was over Erwin. He was just fine. He was even giving out advice to stupid not-interns. He. Was. Fine.

Levi could handle death. Every day there was at least one new body in the morgue, another body to register and send out to a funeral home. Over the years he had become desensitized to the lifeless faces looking at him—not that it took much to get him to not care. Death was routine and easy to handle and kept his mind off of things he would rather not think about.

There would be an autopsy later that afternoon, but at that moment, Levi was in his office across from the morgue, filing paperwork for the deceased. Every once in a while he would glance out the window, making sure Oluo and Petra were both doing their work—not that he doubted their competence. They had been working as technicians for three years, and his only complaint was that they had both taken a full week off, leaving him to work double shifts to make up for it. But they had been on their honeymoon, so he really couldn’t blame them for that.

He could, though, frown as Hanji, and her ever diligent shadow, came bounding into his space. He was still safe in his room, but he watched Petra put down her papers to greet them, and why exactly did Blondie have to look over at him every five seconds? Their eyes met, and like always the kid looked at his feet. Like he wanted to say something. Honestly he wouldn’t have cared, but every little thing seemed to be getting on his last nerve. The world was shitting on him, in big smelly clumps.

“Hey Levi,” Hanji called, waving to him, “stop glaring and come talk to us.” Levi hesitated for a moment before setting down the papers that he had stopped comprehending ten minutes ago. As he approached Blondie took two steps back.

“What do you want?” He growled, as his frown turned into an outright scowl. This day was quickly turning south. Oluo straightened up in his seat, pretending to immerse himself into his papers.

“Do you want some tea, sir?” Petra asked, and before he answered, she was already standing and on her way. She glanced at him before she left, worry clear in her gaze. Worry and pity.

Levi could handle Blondie’s constant stare; the kid was only in the building twice a week and honestly Levi couldn’t give a fuck. It was the constant anxious gazes from every-fucking-body he knew that kept him in a rage induced haze. Mike, Moblit, Petra, Oluo, and even fucking Nanaba, each and every one of them had taken time out of his day to pull him aside.

_“Are you alright? What happened? You were perfect together!”_ And Levi’s personal favorite. _“It’ll be okay!”_ All of it was bullshit because their constant tiptoeing around him like he was a fucking porcelain doll was worse than the initial break up. It had been three weeks, and Levi was one hundred percent over Erwin, and once everyone else realized it, his life could get back on track.

Hanji plopped herself down in Petra’s empty chair. “No need to get angry.” She raised her hands in surrender as Levi’s glare intensified. “I just came over to make sure the autopsy room was set up and ready to go.”

Levi exhaled, trying to calm his nerves. “Petra cleaned this morning, but I haven’t had time to go check it yet.”

“Then it’ll be fine. She always lays things out perfect.” Hanji turned to Armin. “Is this going to be your first autopsy?” She grinned widely.

“Ah, no, sorry. Although, this will be the first time I get to be so close.”

“Awww,” Hanji’s smile slipped slightly. “The last intern I had ran out of the room and puked. After that he stopped showing up. We laughed about it for weeks.”

“R-really?” Blondie’s eyes widened and darted between them, before landing back on the floor.

“Idiot thought it would be just like TV,” Levi rolled his eyes. “He wasn’t expecting the smell or the amount of blood.”

“It was only a routine autopsy too,” Hanji shrugged. “They’re not as fun as the others.”

“Others?” Hanji was about to go on a rant, Levi just knew, but Petra saved him from hearing _that_ again by walking back in. She handed Levi his tea, fresh from the cafeteria, and began taking out sodas and juices from the bag hanging from her arm.

“I got something for everybody, although I wasn’t sure what you would like, Armin.”

“Thank you,” Blondie mumbled and okay Levi was done with this shit.

Levi took a scalding sip of the watered down mess that passed as tea before setting it down on his desk. He grabbed his coat that he had left on the back of his chair, “Hey kid,” he said, “follow me.”

“Stop stealing my shadow. Get your own.”

“We’re going to check the room. Go back to your own office.” Levi stopped at the main door only long enough for Blondie to go ahead of him. They didn’t talk as they walked and that suited Levi just fine. He could definitely wait.

Levi swiped his keycard at the morgue door, shivering slightly at the sudden drop in temperature. He stepped into the side room, away from the actual bodies, and began to examine Petra’s work. He could see the kid out of the corner of his eye fidgeting, but went on as if he hadn’t noticed. Working with people wasn’t Levi’s strong point, but even he could see that if he tried to push the kid, then he would land himself with an even bigger annoyance.

“I’m really sorry, sir.” Levi nearly jumped from the sheer volume of his voice. He turned around to face Blondie directly and raised an eyebrow.

“For what?”

“Eren can be really impulsive and he doesn’t think before he talks. He drank a little too much that night and I honestly didn’t think he would be so disrespectful or I wouldn’t have invited him,” he took a deep breath, “I’m really sorry for the way he acted and so is he.”

Levi was completely flabbergasted. He blinked. Eren? The name rung a faint bell in the back of his mind. Levi was one second away from straight out asking who the fuck that was before the memory came back. The arrogant little shit.

“Why the fuck are you apologizing for that?” Levi didn’t mean to sound crass, but the kid in front of him was making as much sense as Hanji did when she was drunk. Silence stretched on—Blondie didn’t seem keen to give him an answer, and Levi sighed. “Look kid. I’m not angry for some imagined offense that another kid that I didn’t even remember the name of gave me. If I’m honest, I was in a bad mood that night—” Understatement of the century “—and I egged him on for shits and giggles.”

“I’m sorry for assuming,” he mumbled.

“What does make me annoyed though,” Levi continued, “is your insistence of talking to the floor. No one’s going to shit on you because you say something they don’t agree with. From everything Hanji’s said about you, you’re not a complete moron, so stop staring at the floor like there’s a stain on it.” Levi scoffed. His floors were completely clean, and the kid would be hard pressed to find anything wrong with them.

Blondie raised his head, looking slightly to the left of Levi. “Thank you, sir.” And then he mumbled under his breath, “I think?”

Still not looking at him but Levi continued with his inspection anyway. It was too much to hope that the kid would change after one sentence, although Levi suspected that he wasn’t usually as compliant as he seemed to act around them, especially if that last part—that Levi was sure he wasn’t supposed to hear—was any indication.

They didn’t speak to each other as they made their way back, but Levi’s head had cleared a bit and he was definitely in a much better mood. Hanji was still hanging around Petra’s desk—she had given up the chair for the desk—and Oluo no longer pretended to work as he faced them.

“Why is it that every time you come around, nothing gets done?” Levi asked without any real bite.

“Because I have a better personality than you.”

“Go back to your own office; everything’s ready for the autopsy, so get yourself ready.”

“Actually, there’s one more thing.” Hanji said standing, “Who’s assisting me today?”

Levi paused for a few seconds weighing the options in his mind. The advantage of being manager meant that he could force Oluo and Petra to deal with dead body entrails and the smell that lasted hours afterward, but Levi had been a little, well, bitchy—for lack of a better word—the past few weeks.

“I’ll assist you, with Petra on standby.” Levi decided.

“Really? Want to impress my shadow, so you can steal him later, don’t you?” She teased.

“Yes,” he deadpanned, “that’s exactly it.” Levi rolled his eyes. “Go away now, shit face.”

She laughed but did as she was told, taking Blondie with her. Levi headed back into his office after remembering to thank Petra for his tea, and settled back into his chair. He had just picked up where he had left off—signing Thomas Wagner, the poor kid, away to be cremated at a funeral home—when he noticed the flashing light on his phone. He picked it up with one hand, glancing over at the message, and froze.

The name sat there innocently, but he couldn’t even bring himself to read the text underneath it. There was no reason in hell for Erwin to text him now. He hadn’t left anything in the apartment, Levi was sure of that. Levi swallowed past the lump in his throat and read the text.

_There’s a new restaurant that opened on Bradington. Want to go to lunch?_

Short and to the point. Erwin was texting him like their breakup had never happened, like Levi didn’t spend nights sitting on the couch watching TV until he couldn’t keep his eyes open just because he hated going to bed, like the shadows under Levi’s eyes hadn’t thickened so he looked as though he was one of the cadavers in the morgue—like everything was normal.

Levi took a deep breath. He was over it. He shouldn’t—there was no reason to be so angry. If Erwin was going to act normal then so was he. He typed out a quick _ok_ and went on with his work as though his heart wasn’t beating at twice its normal rate.

 

Levi only mentioned that he was leaving for lunch as he walked out his office. No one said anything out of the ordinary, but Levi knew he was living in some alternate world where exes invited you out for lunch three weeks after the breakup.

Don’t dwell on it. Act normal. Levi gritted his teeth the whole drive over, trying to remember what he would normally do and say under the circumstances. But they weren’t together anymore. Levi swung into the parking lot faster than he had intended and only years of driving allowed him to park perfectly. He laid his head on the steering wheel. He wasn’t weak. Levi opened the door with more force than necessary, but as he was getting out a voice interrupted his anger.

“It’s unusual for you to be late, Levi.”

Levi closed the door behind him carefully. “Erwin.” He looked up, noting the still perfect exterior Erwin had. Everything was in place, from the stupidly perfect blonde hair to the wrinkleless Armani suit. Even that smile seemed unaffected, but Erwin kept his distance, standing behind Levi’s car and not a step closer. That shouldn’t hurt but it did.

“I’ve heard great reviews about this place.” Erwin said as he led them inside. “Mike went last week and even he had something good to say.”

“Hmmm.” Levi wasn’t trying to give him the silent treatment, but every clever fucking word seemed to have left him.

The host sat them down in the back, in a dimly lit space that screamed of romance. Another second of pointless chitter and Levi was ready to scream himself. What the hell did Erwin want?

“I’ve heard the Shrimp Florentine is the best dish the chef has,” Erwin flashed him a smile, “but I know Salmon is your favorite, which is also on the menu.”

“I’ll get the shrimp.” Levi said, hiding his face behind the menu. He didn’t know what kind of shitty expression he was making, but he was sure as hell that he wasn’t going to let Erwin see it. Erwin wasn’t allowed to remember his favorites, and take him out to a new restaurant like their tradition still mattered. Levi wished his initial anger would come back, but he was just left with feelings he didn’t want to sort out.

“Hell, I’m Eren and I’ll your-erm-server today?” Levi looked up at the stuttering kid and almost laughed. He was staring straight at Levi and the smile that he had probably been wearing had turned into an annoyed pout. He probably still held a grudge too. The world was obviously trying to make him feel as shitty as possible.

“Are you alright?” Erwin asked. “Do you and Levi know each other?”

“Something like that,” Eren said. He shuffled between his feet before seemingly remembering that he was working. “So, um, are you two ready to order?” Erwin ordered for them both and the short break gave Levi some time to control himself before his make shift shield of the menu was taken away.

“So how do you two know each other?” Levi wished he could hear jealousy in Erwin’s voice, but threw the thought away as quickly as it came.

“He’s Hanji’s shadow’s friend.” Levi paused. “Hanji forced me to go drinking with her the day—” after you walked out on me.

“Yes, she told me about him.” Erwin went on as though he hadn’t noticed Levi’s slip. “He had an impressive resume.”

Levi took a sip of water and didn’t answer. They both knew there was an awkward tension rising in the air, but Levi wasn’t going to break it. Erwin invited him out and if he wasn’t going to get to the point, then Levi wasn’t going to force him. Levi had tried talking and that ended up in a horrible mess of diarrhea, something he wasn’t about to repeat.

But then Erwin started talking about the patients he had seen that day. How many surgeries he had performed in the last few weeks when they hadn’t talked. Who Erwin had been hanging out with. Levi got all the details he usually Erwin used to tell him every day, while they were lying in bed.

“What the hell do you want from me?” Levi was louder than he intended, and actually he hadn’t intended to say anything at all.

“Pardon?”

“You can’t just—” Levi took a deep breath. He needed to lower his voice. He needed to act like nothing was affecting him. “You can’t just invite me out like-like before and act like everything’s fine between us.”

Erwin sighed, like he was about to reprimand a child. “I was under the impression that everything was fine between us? We agreed to still be friends afterwards, Levi.”

Levi tried to understand; he really did—but he hadn’t agreed to shit. Erwin was living in his happy world where he got the best of Levi and even after throwing him away, he could still continue to take. Levi wasn’t that easy.

“I have to go,” he said as his chair screeched back. People were looking over and Erwin was saying something, but Levi couldn’t hear past the buzzing in his head. He walked briskly, that is, until he ran directly into a body in front of him. That stupid kid. Eren grabbed his shoulders to stabilize them both.

“Are you okay?” The kid asked in concern.

Levi didn’t want to hear that phrase another time. He was going to kill someone. He was going to cry, but mostly he just didn’t want to care at all. Levi tore out of his grip and left.

Getting back to the morgue was a blur that most likely would end up with him getting a ticket in the mail. Going to lunch was stupid; he had known that from the beginning. But Levi always agreed to what Erwin asked of him. He didn’t know how to change that.

“Are you alright, sir?” Petra asked. Levi flinched. Shut up. Stop asking. He was sick and tired and fuck it all. Erwin still had him wrapped around his finger.

“Petra can you take over assisting Hanji with Oluo on standby?” He said instead, his voice even. Perfectly normal.

She frowned at him. “Is everything alright, sir?”

“I had a bad lunch,” he couldn’t look her in the eye but he couldn’t admit the truth either. “It left me feeling a little sick.” Pathetic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to reiterate that this is a Levi-centric fic and slow build. Eren keeps making cameos, but right now Armin and Hanji are showing up more than him. Whoopsies.  
> Also I've never worked in a hospital morgue, let alone even seen one, so if I got something glaringly wrong please tell me and I'll be forever grateful.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Normal. Normal. Normal. Go to work. Go home. Eat. Shower. Sleep. Repeat. There was no need to worry about him. Levi was acting completely normal.

There was supposed to be at least two people stationed in the morgue at all times. They were understaffed, but Levi worked with the staff he had. Petra in the morning, Oluo in the afternoon, Erd in the evening, and Gunter during the night. There would be a little overlap in some shifts, and on rare occasions someone would need some extra money and request a double shift. Levi tried to give them what they wanted because their pay was shit and extra help was always appreciated.

Levi’s schedule changed every week, day shift, with Petra and Oluo, then night shift with Erd and Gunter. On paper he oversaw what they did and checked to make sure they filled out forms correctly, but honestly after two years of working with all of them, the only thing he checked with consistency was that they cleaned thoroughly. He trusted them to know how to do as he liked, and they did.

Levi took over on their days off, or Hanji would sit in. She had other work to do, and sometimes Levi wondered if she was actually assigned to the morgue or if she just liked being down there, but he didn’t question it because they all got tired of doing too much work for too little.

But after the disastrous lunch, Levi quietly redid the schedule and gave himself two full weeks in a row.

Just enough work to excuse himself from any outings that Hanji insisted on inviting him on, but not enough to overwork himself. When the weekend came and Hanji invited him out drinking, he told her he had to work. He just told her he was busy with work.

They all noticed that the paperwork on his desk—usually a pile that grew as fast as he worked through it—had disappeared within the first week, that he was in his office more often than not, and that he didn’t go out with Hanji even after the fourth time she asked him. His excuse was that he was catching up on paperwork and giving the morgue a thorough cleaning. No one bought it, but they kept the distance he was setting.

The end of his shift was approach—he had taken part of the night and morning—and as he rubbed his eyes, trying to stop the papers in front of him from blurring, he somewhat regretted taking on so much time.

He had closed his blinds, so when a knock sounded at his door, it caused him to straighten in his seat. At least no one had seen that. Levi ran his hand through his hair, blinking a few times. He had less than an hour left of sitting in his office, all he had to do was stay awake until he made it back home.

“Sir, may I come in?” Petra called out.

Oh yeah, she was still waiting. “Come in.” he definitely didn’t sound as out of it as he felt. Definitely.

She walked in, two Starbucks cups in her hands. “I brought you a chai tea, sir.” She set it on his desk, and thank god she hadn’t gone to the cafeteria.

“Thank you,” he said and fuck, he meant it. Starbucks wasn’t the best, but it was damn good anyway. He took a sip from the cup, burning his mouth slightly, before he looked back up at her.

“No problem.” She hesitated. “I’m sorry for the late notice, sir, but I’m going to need to take tomorrow off.”

It took a moment for the words to process in his mind. “Is there a problem?” He asked as he began pulling up the forms on his computer. He was going to give the day to her, but Petra wouldn’t usually ask for anything without at least a week of notice.

“I haven’t been feeling too well recently, so I scheduled a visit to the doctor. Although if you need me to, I can come in a few hours late.”

Levi frowned. “No need. Take the day off to recover.”

“Thank you.” She wrung her hands together and turned to leave. Levi focused fully on the computer, bringing up the schedule. Either Erd or Gunter would have to take over her shift, or Levi would do it himself. Petra cleared her throat in the doorway. Levi looked up and raised an eyebrow.

“There’s actually one more things, sir; although, I may be overstepping boundaries by saying this, and for that I apologize.” He could tell by the set of her jaw that she was going to say what she wanted anyway, so he remained silent, waiting for her to go on. “You should take a day off for your health as well. You know you can trust us to handle things here.”

Levi sighed. “I’m fine, Petra. Thank you.”

He tried, he really did, to soften the dismissal, to make it obvious that he cared but at the same time, he would rather not have their worry attached to him, but by the way her smile slipped and she slunk out of his office Levi knew he had failed in that regard. But there wasn’t anything else he could have said, so he continued to sit in his chair and pretend he was getting things done.

He spoke his normal goodbyes to Petra as he was walking out, feeling the slightest twinge of guilt when her voice didn’t sound quite as bright as usual, but he shook it off. He had almost made it to the stairwell, when—oh, fuck that was Hanji.

“Levi, wait up.” Hanji called out. He almost kept on going. Almost. But instead he turned around, standing in front of her office door. “Oh that’s a surprise you actually stopped,” she said smoothly and fucking full of malice. “I figured you would keep ignoring me.”

“I’m not ignoring you, Hanji.” Levi said evenly.

“Maybe that’s not the right word.” She let out a breath and crossed her arms. “You’re acting perfectly normal, but it’s almost unnatural, like you’re not even,” she paused and pushed her glasses up to stare at him. “Just stop doing whatever you’re doing.”

“Hanji, that doesn’t make any sense. I’m fine,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Although I just clocked off, so…” he trailed off and made to head back towards the exit.

Hanji raced around him, blocking him from going. “One more thing, Levi, just don’t—”

“I’m really sorry, Hanji,” Armin interrupted. He was still putting things back into his bag as he edged himself out of the door. “There’s an emergency. I have to go. Sorry.”

“Is everything ok?” Hanji asked. Levi winced, but made his escape while he had the opportunity. He wasn’t saintly enough to listen to someone else’s problems. He wasn’t that kind.

 

After taking a shower to rid himself from the smell of the deceased, all of his restlessness came back with a fucking vengeance just in time to stop him from getting any sleep. Instead of heading back to his room, Levi began taking his cleaning supplies out from the spare closet. He hadn’t given the apartment a deep cleaning in a long time, and now was as good as ever.

Cleaning was mindless and easy and it saved him from thinking too much, just like working. If he could just stop thinking and wondering and feeling, his life would be perfect, but he was stuck in a rut. He shouldn’t _care_ quite as much as he did. He shouldn’t be so wrapped up in one shitty aspect of his life, but fuck it if he couldn’t stop himself—and that loss of control was getting to him the most.

Levi washed the few dishes in the sink, two plates, a fork, spoon, and three mugs. Erwin had been much more inviting than Levi, always inviting people over for coffee and snacks, leaving the dishes for Levi to wash. He set them in the dishwasher slightly harder than he intended.

He grabbed the duster and the step stool and even then, he had to stand on his tip toes, stretching as far as he could to reach all the way in the far corners behind the TV, then moved to the shelves taking the vases down the clean later. At least Erwin wasn’t there to tease him.

Levi dropped the duster and quietly cursed to himself. He was just annoying himself more. Even Hanji with her constant hanging around him wasn’t as ridiculous as his constant fucking intrusive thoughts that wouldn’t leave him alone. Just stop thinking about it. Enough time had passed for him to at least stop thinking about it.

He sighed and turned on the TV for background noise to drown out his irritation. He wiped down the tables and the shelves. His eyelids were fucking finally beginning to feel heavy, so he took off his gloves and pulled out the vacuum, cleaning up the dust that had hit the floor. Levi pulled his phone from out his pocket and checked the time. It was barely six, but he would have to be up again at midnight for work. He needed to get his ass to sleep. Before, Erwin would have harassed him until he finally laid down.

Well it wasn’t ‘before’ and Levi honesty wanted to punch himself in the face for still thinking about Erwin. Levi had never considered himself as a person who needed a relationship to feel whole—he still didn’t consider himself as that fucking weak, so he should have stopped caring a long time ago. He didn’t know how to turn off whatever trigger in his brain said it was alright to be so fucking pathetic.

He needed another cup of tea, but not necessarily the caffeine attached to it, something calming. He set his phone down and opened the cabinet, trying to decide on what flavor he wanted. As he was brewing the tea—a lemon herbal, not his favorite, but it would do—his phone began to vibrate. Instead of picking it up though, he watched it until the vibrations ceased.

He took a sip of his tea, and decided that he didn’t need sugar. Sitting at the dining room table, he set the cup down and watched his phone begin to ring again. He rested his head on the table, watching languidly. Three calls and two texts and then silence for a while until one last text came, all in the span of time it took him to finish his cup.

He only wanted to talk to Hanji to tell her that yes this qualified as ignoring. Not going out with her to watch her drink was only self-preservation. He almost regretted telling Hanji how he felt after the breakup—almost. She was the meddler; she cared too much for her own good, and she was watching him like a goddamned hawk. He had gotten everyone to back off except for her, because to everyone else he was perfectly fine and he wanted it to stay that way.

Leaning his head on the table, Levi reached for his phone. One random fact of the day from Mike—who knew sneeze styles were inherited, and why was he telling Levi?—and everything else was from Hanji.

_i wanted to tell you before you ran away that u cant just push ur friends away. were still here for you :)_

And that’s exactly why Levi hated Hanji sometimes; she knew how to read him almost as well as Farlan and Isabel. He didn’t know how to respond so he just continued on to the next message.

_call me back levi this is actually kinda important_

Levi hummed to himself. It could be important or it was a conniving way to get him to talk to her. He was still staring at the message, deciding what to do when another one came in.

_this has nothing to do with ur problems i promise_

Levi rolled his eyes. Yeah, she definitely knew him too well. He hoped though, that a simple _‘what do you want?’_ would sate her enough that she wouldn’t call, but he knew her habits too and fuck, this wasn’t going to end happily no matter what way he responded. He only waited two seconds before she responded.

_oh good ur not asleep dont go to sleep yet_

_im coming over_

Well, fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda of a transitional chapter for you, in the next one, stuff starts happening :)  
> And as for Mike's facts of the day, not all of them are about the nose, but most of them are. Levi's favorite are the ones about the digestive system.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “First rule of the house: don’t report anything about me to Hanji. Second rule: clean up after yourself and whatever friends you want to invite over. And third: don’t be a nosy little shit.”

If asked two months ago, Levi would have said he was living a stable content life, but as he was lugging a heavy box—probably full of fucking bricks or whatever else college kids liked to keep in their dorms nowadays—Levi had to admit that his life had taken yet another shit all over him.

He needed to take some sort of tally for this or something.

At least he could blame Hanji for this fuck up. He should have never agreed to let her come over because she had a way of convincing him to do things he would never do if it was anyone else. Like that one time he oversaw a drinking contest between her and Moblit, or like inviting a college kid that he had only met twice before—both in horrible situations that Levi would rather forget—to stay with him indefinitely.

Levi kicked open the bedroom door and set the box down with all fucking twenty of the others. At least Hanji had the good will to help out, even if her and the other two dipshits were taking their sweet time. They had been at it for three hours, mostly thanks to Hanji first inviting them in his house for food, and then challenging them all to a race up the stairs instead of using the elevator like civilized human beings.

Levi had used the elevator and he wasn’t sweaty or tired and he was done with the boxes they had allotted as his “share,” so he grabbed himself a bottle of water from the fridge and sat on the couch to wait.  Blondie came in first, surprisingly. He was panting heavily and Levi tried not to wince at the sweat stains on his shirt. Gross.

“Are you done already, sir?”

“There’s this thing called an elevator that goes faster than walking up and down three flights of stairs,” he responded sarcastically.

“A little challenge can be fun,” Blondie said but when Levi chose not to respond, he shrugged. He turned back towards the door, but as he was headed back out the door, the punk wannabe ran in. He dropped the box like it didn’t hold all of his belongings and stared at Blondie.

“You made it before me?” He asked, his mouth wide open.

“Don’t worry, I still have another box to get.”

“Yes!” he said as he pumped his fist in the air. “I knew I could win.” He wiped his disgustingly sweaty hands on his jeans.

“If you’re done, then go wash your hands and clean your face.” Levi refrained from saying anything more. He was going to have to get along with the kid, Eren—he had to remember that stupid name—at least until he moved out.

Eren seemed to be thinking the same thing because he did exactly as he told, with only a dirty look directed at the floor. Kids these days looked at the floor too much. On the other hand, Levi needed to stop using that phrase because he wasn’t that fucking old yet.

There was thump at the door, that made Blondie and Eren jump, but Levi only sighed. Hanji thumped against the door again before she finally realized that the door knob was right in front of her.

“Who closed the door?” she panted as she backed into the house. She set the two boxes she was carrying on top of the one Eren had left at the door. She wiped her face and bent over, her hands resting on her knees.

“I fucking won,” Eren exclaimed as he pointed at Hanji. “And you cheated by carrying two boxes, so that makes it a double win.”

“Oh come on,” Hanji whined as she walked in the kitchen to rummage through Levi’s fridge, “Out of the kindness of my heart I carried Armin’s last box, so I should be getting double points.”

“This isn’t a point system. I was faster, so I won.”

“We never agreed that it wasn’t a point system.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

As much as the pointless conversation was amusing Levi, he knew that if he let it, they would go on forever. “Give it up Hanji. You lost.”

“Fine, fine, but next time it’s your loss, Jaeger.” She glared at him even as she threw him and Armin—Levi made a mental note to stop forgetting Blondie’s name—both water bottles.

“And next time, you get to buy me some drinks.” The punk actually had the nerve to wink as he threw his sweaty body on Levi’s couch, next to Levi himself. Levi scooted over as far as he could without causing a scene. He was going to have to wash those cushions.

“Thanks, Hanji,” Armin said. He turned towards Eren. “Are you sure you don’t want me to help you unpack?”

“Yeah, I have all weekend to sort through everything.”

“Then come on and walk me out.” Eren rolled his eyes, but stood up again anyway. Armin held open the door and let Eren walk out before looking between Hanji and Levi. “Thanks for helping him out. He may not show it but he’s really grateful for it.” He closed the door behind him and Levi had only a few seconds of blessed silence.

Hanji jumped over the couch and leaned towards him—yeah, definitely washing the cushions. “How much do you want to bet that they’re dating?”

“I don’t give a shit, and shouldn’t you be leaving?” Levi leaned away from her. “Go take a shower.”

“Do you promise not to kill Eren if I leave?”

“You’ve literally asked me that a hundred time.”

“But you never gave me a good answer.”

“I’m pretty sure saying ‘if he doesn’t annoy me then I won’t’ is a good answer.”

“It’s a yes or no question Levi.”

“And I gave you a maybe, and you’ll both have to be satisfied with that.” Levi sighed. “I did take the day off for this shit.”

“Your first day off in two weeks.”

“I had work to do.”

“You—” Hanji cut off as Eren walked back into the apartment, but before Levi could escape, she was getting up and heading towards the door…wait what? She had never given up that easily.

“Hey Eren,” Hanji said smiling as she clasped him on the shoulder. “If Levi decides that he wants to work for two weeks straight, or if he doesn’t eat properly please tell me.”

“I, uh?”

“It’s for the best if you do as I say, Eren.”  She leaned forward until she was only a few centimeters away from his face.

“Ok?” He said as he backed into a wall. Levi crossed his arms, but didn’t try to help the kid. He wasn’t about to deal with a crazy shit face while he was still slightly overheated from the hot autumn sun.

“Thank you Eren,” she exclaimed. She patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about Levi. He’s a huge softie on the inside.” Before Levi could contest her though, she was already out the door. Levi glared at the offending object, while Eren continued to stand there.

“Is she always like that?”

“Only when she wants something.” Levi stood up to his full—and still small comparatively—height. “First rule of the house: don’t report anything about me to Hanji.”

“Oh, don’t worry I wasn’t really planning on doing that.”

“Second rule,” he continued, ignoring the kid and his comments, “clean up after yourself and whatever friends you want to invite over. And third: don’t be a nosy little shit.”

“That’s it?”

Levi raised an eyebrow. “Do you want more rules? I can pull more out of my ass, but I assumed you knew the normal rules of courtesy.”

“Well excuse me for caring.” Eren huffed. “I figured you would give a shit about someone you didn’t know moving into your apartment.”

“I’m not your fucking caretaker. As long as you don’t do anything illegal or stupid then I don’t care.” Levi almost stopped himself, but he figured that he would get the elephant out of the room as soon as possible. “Although, please tell me if I should be worried that you’ll pull the same shit that got you kicked out of the dorms.”

“That wasn’t my fault,” Eren growled. “I didn’t start that fight.” He crossed his arms over his chest and exhaled through his nose.

Levi raised an eyebrow, although he didn’t doubt Eren’s sincerity. Something about his instantaneous anger made him more believable, or something poetic like that. “I don’t care what you did, just don’t do it again.”

“I—” Eren opened his mouth to argue, but in the end all he said was, “Okay, I’ll just go unpack my things then.”

 Levi didn’t say anything as the kid stormed into the master bedroom, slamming the door behind him. He continued staring at nothing in particular until he had emptied his water bottle. He threw it in the trash and went into his own room. He had moved the last of his things from the master bedroom to the guest room only that morning, and now the guest room was Levi’s room. This felt wrong, in an annoyingly vague way, but there was nothing he could do about that.

Eren would be using the master bedroom now, and until he moved out, Levi would have to deal with it. Erwin wasn’t there anymore. Erwin didn’t matter anymore. Levi grabbed a book at random from his pathetically empty bookcase and laid down to read and not think.

 

He would never admit to anyone that the knock at his door jerked him awake, nor that he had fallen asleep with a book settled onto his face. Forgive and forget and figure out why that little shit was bothering him already. Levi moved the book and padded his way to the door.

“What do you want?”

“I didn’t mean to bother you, jeez.” Eren said without an ounce of guilt. “I just wanted to know I could put some of my books in the living room.”

“I thought you had a bookcase?”

“Well, I do.” Eren scratched the back of his head, “but the room I had before also had built in shelves so my books don’t all fit and I noticed you had shelves in the living room, but if you don’t want to move your vases then that’s fine too. I just wanted to know.”

“Take a breath before you kill yourself, brat.” Levi rolled his eyes and motioned for Eren to move. He walked past him and surveyed the living room. “I know the situation isn’t exactly idea for either of us, but for now, you live here, so stop worrying about offending me.” Levi grabbed one of the end tables and began carrying it into his room. “And,” he continued once he made it back into the living room, “if you are trying to offend me then you’re going to have to try a lot fucking harder than that.”

“Well, that’s nice to know,” Eren said relaxing his shoulders. Levi almost wanted to laugh, but he was too busy moving the armchair over slightly. Eren’s eyes followed Levi’s movements curiously. “What exactly are you doing?”

“I have another bookshelf in my room.” Levi explained as he headed back into his room. Eren trailed after him, his eyes brightening.

“Really? Do you like to read?” He spotted the book lying on Levi’s bed and grabbed it. “ _In Cold Blood_? That sounds familiar…” He flipped to the back cover and began muttering to himself. Levi, for the most part, ignored him and began moving the rest of his books off the shelf.

“You’re the one who wants the bookshelf, brat, so you can move it to the living room.” Eren had moved on to inspecting the books Levi had set aside, but he jumped up like the guilty child he was when Levi spoke up.

“Sorry. I kinda got carried away.”

He took ahold of the relatively light case and set it down where the table had been. Levi stacked his books in his arms, set them down on the arm chair and meticulously began putting them back. Eren walked back to his room and holy shit why did he have four boxes?

“How many books do you have?” Levi asked, a little awestruck. No fucking wonder those boxes were so heavy. If the kid sold all of his books, then he would have enough money to pay for his own place easily.

“A lot.” Eren sat on the floor and began unpacking. “Some of them are for my classes, but most of them I just ended up getting, either as a present or buying them for myself.” He lifted his books one at a time, setting most of them aside and flipping through the others like he had made some great discovery. So far nothing had actually made it on the shelf and Levi was done caring.

Now Levi understood how Eren and Hanji were both friends. They were both over excitable idiots, except Eren was springing a figurative boner for books of all things.

“Are you a literature student?” Levi asked before his brain could catch up with his mouth.

“Yeah, duh.” Eren rolled his eyes. “I thought I already told you that.”

“You didn’t you shitty idiot.”

“Yeah I did.” He cocked his head to the side, as his brows drew together in concentration. “When we all went out that one time.”

“No you didn’t and I’m not about to argue the point with you.”

“But I did.”

“I don’t care either way, so just drop it.”

“So just admit that I told you and you just forgot like the old man you are.”

Levi glared at the kid and Eren glared right back. Anything nice he had been thinking, Levi took back because this brat was nothing more than a shitty annoyance in his living room.

“Since you’re not saying anything, I’m going to assume that you know I’m right.” Eren grinned.

“I’m not going to play this stupid game with you.”

“Then admit I’m right.”

Levi stood up and without another word went straight back into his room. He didn’t slam the door behind him and he didn’t stomp his feet because he wasn’t a three year old and he wasn’t going to deal with one. No wonder someone had punched the idiot; Levi kind of wanted to punch him too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was dedicated to all those Levi/Eren interactions that weren't in the first few chapters :) hopefully this made up for it.  
> Also In Cold Blood is a true story murder thriller type of book by Truman Capote, for those who were curious.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi didn’t know why he dealt with Hanji. Maybe because after insulting him, his intelligence, and his face—there was nothing wrong with his fucking face—she did give some good advice. Sometimes.

“Have you killed him yet?” Hanji asked the moment she opened the door to his office. Levi didn’t bother looking up from his papers. He knew exactly who she was talking about.

“No.”

“So what _did_ you do to him?”

Levi glanced up at her, then back towards his papers. “Nothing.” He sighed. “What do you want?”

“Armin said that Eren was acting weird and I tried asking him if anything happened, but he said he was fine, so now I’m asking you.”

“You do realize that he probably has a million other reasons to be bothered other than me, right?”

“That’s true.” Hanji sat down on the edge of his desk and propped her glasses up. “But I also know that you’re not really as busy as you want me to think, so that means you’re hiding something.”  
“There’s been a recent surge in old people deaths.” He deadpanned, still scanning through papers. “I’m not hiding anything.”

“Old people always die.”

“So I always have work to do.”

Hanji sighed. “Do you have to be so stubborn every time I talk to you?”

“Do you have to be so argumentative?” Levi set his papers down on his desk and covered his face with his hands. “I didn’t do anything to the stupid kid. He’s about as prone to argue as you are.”

“Ohh,” Hanji said in one drawn out breath. She smiled that stupidly arrogant smile at him. “So he sassed you back and you got annoyed?”

“More like he wanted to argue a point—like a fucking child—and I didn’t even care about it in the first place,” Levi confessed even though he wanted to smash Hanji’s shitty face into the wall for the way she was looking at him. “And now even though I told him that I don’t get offended by idiots, he’s avoiding me like he doesn’t live in my fucking apartment.”

“Now was that so hard to say?” Hanji finally got her ass off his desk—he was going to have to clean that now, thanks—and stretched. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you do know that no matter what you say, you always look pissed, right?”

“Fuck off, Hanji.” He growled and goddamn it he wasn’t proving her wrong.

“And you talk like you’re pissed, and you probably did that thing where you just walk away from an argument.” He couldn’t help but to look away at that. “Now see, if I was a normal person who had nowhere else to go because I was fired from my lofty position as a RA and lost my housing and was now forced to live with a guy I’ve only met twice before because no cheap apartments near campus lease in the middle of the semester,” she took a huge breathe, “And this guy basically saved my ass and then I promptly made him angry, then I would be avoiding you too.”

“How the fuck did you even string all that together?” Levi would be fucking awed if Hanji hadn’t been talking about him. Actually fuck it, he was still a little impressed.

“Because despite how you constantly belittle me, my intelligence vastly outweighs yours.” He glared at her and she relented. “Or hypothetically, Eren told Armin what happened and Armin told me yesterday when I took him out for lunch, and I just wanted to hear you admit it, so I lied.”

“You’re too nosey for your own good, shitface.” Levi sighed. “Stop keeping tabs on me like I’m one of your stupid experiments.”

“No promises.” Hanji said in a sing song voice. “Anyway, I didn’t come here to tell you to stop scaring Eren with your constant constipated face.”

“Then please get to the point and stop insulting me before I make sure you’re never able to shit again.”

“Me and Mike are going to Maria’s later. Do you want to grace us with your presence?”

“Hanji it’s Thursday.” Levi raised an eyebrow. “And you have an autopsy tomorrow morning.”

“We’re going to dinner not out for drinks. Have a little faith in me.” Hanji rolled her eyes. “Besides, today is the first day in a while where our schedules match up. Let’s have a little fun together.”

She didn’t mention that he had been avoiding _her_ for a while, and Levi was grateful in a ‘you just insulted everything about me and then invited me out’ sort of way, which really meant that he was finding it very hard to be grateful about anything.

“What time?” He asked.

“Six thirty at the usual table.”

 

Hanji was a dirty liar. They had just gotten their dinner and the shit face had already downed three fucking drinks, using the excuse that she hadn’t tried them yet—another fucking lie. Levi was almost willing to knock the next drink she ordered out of her hands, but Mike beat him to the punch.

As the waiter came by Mike handed the girl Hanji’s nearly empty glass. “Just give her water for now.”

Hanji half-heartedly reached for the drink, but gave it up after Levi glared at her and slapped her arm away. “I wasn’t done with that, you know.”

“You’re done.” Levi stabbed his pasta with more force than necessary. He looked towards Mike. “Do you want to call Moblit or do I have to?”

Hanji picked at her food with her hands—fucking disgusting—and slid down in her seat. “Don’t call Moblit,” she muttered. “He’s working a double shift. I’m fine to drive myself home.”

“Like hell you are.”

“I’ll drive her.” Mike said without missing a beat.

“Moblit’s always working.” Hanji said drawing out every syllable, not at all paying attention to what anyone was saying.

“I understand.” Mike said after he had swallowed the food in his mouth. “Nanaba’s working more now too. The nurses are understaffed and now everyone else has to pick up the slack.”

“Them too?” Levi asked. Working in the basement had its perks, like having a small not busy staff and not having to deal with people’s shit, but he spent most of the time out of the loop of what was going on within the actual hospital. Usually he was up to par with what was happening thanks to Erwin, but well—Levi wasn’t going to dwell on that thought.

“Budget cuts again.” Mike explained. “I’m surprised they haven’t hit you too.”

“We’ve been understaffed and underpaid since I started. Anymore cuts and there won’t be a morgue.”

“I might be working more hours soon.” Hanji interjected, finally done with moping. “Upstairs, not with grumpy face.” She stuck out her tongue at Levi. “Get this Mike,” She looked far too happy for someone who just announced that her workload was increasing, “his new roommate is scared shitless of him because he only knows how to make one face.”

“You got a roommate?” Mike asked.

“Hanji forced me into it.” Levi glared at Hanji. He had no fucking clue how her mind jumped from one thing to the next and he really did not want to talk about his own life. He knew she had looked too fucking happy, the gossiping little shit face.

“A poor broke college student with nowhere else to go.” Hanji laughed much too loudly. “Although I never thought it would be a train wreck less than a week in.”

“You’re the train wreck here.” Levi was actually starting to get pissed off, legitimately shit all over you pissed off. Dealing with Hanji was only mildly annoying, and usually dealing with drunk Hanji was annoying, but at that moment he honestly wished he was anywhere else besides that table. And Hanji was only tipsy.

“I heard you went to Sea Breeze a few weeks back. Did you like the food?” Mike said and at Levi’s confused look he elaborated. “The new restaurant on Bradington.”

Levi appreciated Mike’s change of subject, he really did, but he chose the one fucking thing that he had been actively avoiding talking and thinking about.

“You went to a new restaurant?” Hanji said with a mouth full. “Without me?”

Levi ignored her—not that it took a lot of effort to—and lifted a mouthful of pasta to his mouth. He took his time chewing, debating on what to say. Maybe Hanji wasn’t the only dirty liar sitting at the table

“It was good,” he said after he had swallowed. “Turns out that my new roommate works there.”

Levi would rather talk about Eren, the stupid little shit, than Erwin fucking Smith any day of the week.

 

Finally going home was a fucking godsend, that is, until he opened his door and saw not only one idiot, but five others all standing in his doorway. Fucking typical. Tell the kid he was going out, and he invited a whole party over. They were staring at him and he wasn’t about to open his mouth because he would most likely say something he was going to regret. And he really hated regret. Eren was talking to Blondie, seemingly not even noticing Levi standing there.

“Ah,” Eren jumped slightly when he finally looked over and locked eyes with Levi. “Uh, these are my friends,” He said with a sweeping gesture, “Sasha, Connie, Annie, and my sister Mikasa. And you already know Armin. Guys this is my, uh, roommate, Levi.”

Levi really didn’t care. Not at all.

“Don’t worry they were literally walking out the door.”

Now that was something Levi cared about. He made a noncommittal sound and walked past the group straight towards his room. They were going to talk about him, but that was on the bottom of his list of worries. Right at that moment all Levi wanted to do was take a long shower to wash the filth of the day off of him. When he came out his room, only Eren was there sitting on the couch with his laptop. Levi’s eyes flew to the wrappers sitting on the table, the popcorn kernels on the floor, before he forced himself to look away. He wasn’t about to deal with that. Shower first.

“Oh, Levi,” Eren said, “Just so you know, they didn’t use your bathroom. I told them to use the one in my room. I figured you wouldn’t want them in there.”

Levi actually turned around to look at Eren in shock for that comment, but he was already looking back down at his laptop. By the tenseness in his shoulders, Levi knew Eren was waiting for him to say something. So with a murmured “Thanks.” Levi went to take his shower. He didn’t bother to see what kind of face the brat made about that.

One shower later and Levi got the second shock of the night from Eren. He had already cleared off the table and swept the floor and as Levi walked around to inspect, he found Eren in the kitchen washing dishes, or at least attempting to. It was almost comical, in an endearingly shitty sort of way.

Levi walked up behind Eren and gently nudged him out of the way. “I’ll wash the dishes, go finish cleaning the living room.”

Eren, after he got over his initial shock, furrowed his eyebrows. “I already cleaned the living room.”

Levi opened his mouth, but decided to bite his tongue slightly. Hanji may have irritated the shit out of him, but she did give good advice. Most of the time. “You need to pull up the cushions and make sure nothing fell in between them, push the couch back, then vacuum the floor. Also wipe down the table with the spray I have in the spare closet.”

“I was going to vacuum, but I figured it was too late.” Eren trailed off, his still wet hands wavering in the air.

“It’ll be fine.” Levi said. “It’s not that late.” The conversation was stilted and awkward but Levi guessed that Eren was making as much of an effort as he was. At least the kid wasn’t prying into his personal business.

“Ok, then.” Eren muttered and hesitantly walked off. Levi had only unloaded the dishwasher—half full of what Eren had deemed clean enough, but wasn’t even close to Levi’s standards—when he heard Eren call him.

“Which spray do I use?”

Levi walked over to the closet and grabbed the right one. “It’s right in the front.”

“You have like, twenty different sprays in there.” Eren retorted. “I’m surprised all your cleaning supplies fit in the closet.” Eren laughed a little. “I’m surprised you have a closet full of cleaning supplies in the first place.”

“Every word coming out your mouth makes it pretty damn obvious that you have never cleaned before in your life.”

“For someone who says they don’t like to argue, you really argue a lot.”

“I just don’t deal with bull shit.”

“Would it kill you to admit it?”

“Just clean the stupid table.” Levi said, pushing the bottle into Eren chest. He turned around and went back to his dishes, ignoring the kid’s victorious humming. As long as he was cleaning, turning dishes around in his hands to make sure they shine before setting them in the dishwasher for perfection, then he could tune out everything around him. After wiping the floor from the water that had dripped Levi walked back to the living room to inspect.

Eren was just finishing wiping down the table and straightened as Levi approached. “Is this good enough?”

Levi’s eyes roamed the room, but he didn’t see anything out of place. Hell, the place looked better than it had that morning. He almost wanted to smile.

“Not bad, Eren.” He said instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As much as the "not bad" trope is overused, I can't help but to love it :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things change, but Levi's learning to adjust. Kinda.

Levi honestly never thought he would bond with someone by _cleaning_ with them. Yeah, he knew that maybe he was a little obsessive about cleaning, and cleanliness in general but no one had tried to approach him through his hobby. He and Hanji had bonded through shit jokes—he later learned how annoyingly bothersome she was. Mike rarely asked questions—rarely said anything for that matter—and that’s how Levi liked it. Isabel and Farlan had been a package deal, and after them following him around for a few weeks, he let them in what had been a startling small world for him.

Levi didn’t even know if he would consider him and Erwin friends anymore; they hadn’t spoken in over a month.

That thought nearly stopped him in his tracks, but he only made a sound to himself and kept on walking up the stairs, back to his apartment. At this point, Levi was more annoyed than anything that his throat still constricted when he thought of Erwin. Being irritated was better than anything else he could think of.

Levi turned his key in the lock, surprised that the door was already unlocked. He really should stop being surprised as to what Eren did. His initial instinct was correct; the kid was an aberrant just as bad as Hanji, and finding the boy standing in the kitchen staring at his collection of tea, would be considered odd by anyone’s standards, so Levi wasn’t just being an asshole.

“What are you doing?” Levi asked as he set two bags down on the counter. Eren jumped, dropping the container he had grabbed out of the cabinet. Levi sighed and began picking up the spilled teabags. Of fucking course the kid had to spill his favorite—earl grey, who doesn’t like it?—all over the floor.

“I’m so, sorry.” Eren said in mortification. “I didn’t mean to spill it.”

Levi ignored him as he finished the job, and set the box back in its place. “What were you doing?” He asked again.

“Well,” Eren scratched the back of his head. “I never really realized that there was so many types of tea, so I wanted to look at them. I figured you wouldn’t mind.” The last statement came out more like a question than anything else.

“Didn’t I tell you not to be nosey?”

“You also said that it takes a lot to offend you.” Eren countered, “And I don’t think this counts a being nosey.”

Levi rolled his eyes, probably not for the last time. Honestly, it was slightly better when the kid was avoiding him. Even if seeing Eren flee the living room the moment he opened the door was more than a little weird, it was far better than to constantly have to _talk_ to the brat. Eren was curious and talkative and competitive, all making for a horrible fucking roommate. Levi was tempted to change his schedule so that he wouldn’t run into the kid, but he wasn’t that pathetic, and Eren wasn’t really _that_ bad. Yet.

“Why do you have so many teas?” Eren asked. “They all taste the same anyway.”

There was no returning from a comment like that. Levi was definitely going to change his schedule, so that he never had to look at the idiot’s face ever again. “They don’t.”

“Well, every type, I’ve tasted tastes the same.”

The brat was probably in love with fucking soda, and by the way Levi suddenly found his fridge full of Mountain Dew and Pepsi, he might even bet on it.

“Then you haven’t tasted anything good.”

Eren stared at Levi without responding for a beat too long and he glanced up at the kid who was staring at him thoughtfully.

“Does your expression ever actually change, or is it always like that?” Eren asked and Levi fucking knew that the kid had severe mouth diarrhea.

“What the fuck?”

“You have this kinda pinched look..? Like you’re always either mildly offended or highly offended.”

Yeah, he really liked the kid better when he was avoiding him. Fuck, Levi was dense, but he didn’t go around insulting people. Why did he think it was a good idea to talk to him? Instead of responding, Levi just began taking the TV dinners out the bag, setting one on the counter for him to eat.

“You know, those aren’t really good for you.”

Levi wanted to throw something. Preferably at Eren’s stupid face. “Are you _trying_ to offend me?”

“Not really?” Eren had the audacity to look confused.

Levi spun around to look Eren dead in the eye. “Household rule number four: don’t talk excessively.”

“That’s not fair.” Eren waved his hands in the air. “You can’t add new rules like that. And that’s way too vague anyway.”

“I’ll give you a hint; you’re talking too much now.”

“I didn’t—” Levi could see Eren literally struggling with his words. “I wasn’t—”

Levi rolled his eyes and turned the oven on. By the time he had set the kettle down on the stove and pulled down a mug for his tea, Eren had stopped his pitiful efforts of talking and settled for staring through Levi’s back with a frustrated pout.

Levi sat on the couch and closed his eyes, vaguely tired from the autopsy he had assisted with that morning. Hanji had given herself a hangover, and Levi had actually missed her vibrant chatter as she examined the body—not that he pitied her situation at all. It just made the day longer than it had to be.

Eren was still shuffling around in the kitchen, but Levi didn’t pay him any mind as he reached for the remote to drown out his own thoughts.

“You know,” Eren said, interrupting his quiet time, “I can make dinner for you if you don’t mind?”

Levi turned towards the kid, and before he could say anything Eren continued.

“I always make extra anyway, but if you don’t want any, that’s fine too.”

He hummed in response. “What are you making?”

“Huh?” Eren was actually taken aback by his question, his stupid face contorting into curious wonder. “Oh, um, I was gonna make chicken and rice.” He muttered under his breath, “It’s much better than a TV dinner anyway.”

“I’ll eat it.” Levi didn’t really have to think long about that. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know how to cook, but most of the time, Levi couldn’t be bothered. Food wasn’t very high on his priority list at all.

“Ok, cool.” Eren stood there shuffling his feet for a moment before he scuttled back to the kitchen. The kid was definitely more awkward than Hanji had ever been—and that was saying something. How could he go from insulting Levi’s face—a sudden favorite topic for everyone around him—to being scared to ask him about food in less than a five minute span? Fucking bizarre.

The kettle went off on the stove just as he got comfortable. Levi opened his cabinet and picked out a simple green tea. As he moved he could feel Eren’s eyes on him, and with the kid holding a knife and his hands covered in chicken juices, it wasn’t exactly the most normal thing. Levi pour the steaming water into his mug, and noticed that he had more water than necessary.

“Do you want me to make you tea?”

“Yeah,” Eren murmured, still lost in though. He jumped slightly and repeated himself with more force to his voice, turning back to his chicken.

Levi blew a half laugh out of his nose, and began searching. Black tea was probably what Eren had tried in the past and would be too strong for him. For a brat like him, he would probably want something fruity. Levi grabbed the orange spice tea from the back—definitely not his favorite.

Working alongside Eren was, well; it was weird. Eren was doing what Erwin would have done with him, except Levi would be making coffee and they would be talking about their day in the hospital. Now though, there was the TV in the background saving them from a slightly awkward silence. But it wasn’t bad, not at all. Levi set Eren’s cup down on the counter next to him and went to sit in the living room. A few minutes of watching the news went by before he heard Eren’s exclamation behind him.

“Wow,” Eren circled around the couch to sit next to Levi. “You were right.”

“Of course I was.” Levi didn’t try to keep the smugness out of his voice as he lifted his own mug to his mouth.

Later, when Eren brought Levi a bowl, he turned towards the kitchen to take note of the damage he had wrought. From his vantage point, it didn’t actually look as bad as he thought, but he wasn’t about to get up and inspect it too hard—at least, not before he ate. He did, though, slice through the chucks of chicken, to make sure they were cooked thoroughly. Just as Levi gingerly lifted a small portion to his mouth, Eren interrupted.

“Jeez, I do know how to cook, you know.” He sounded slightly miffed. “And I tried to be clean.”

Levi set his fork down, turning towards Eren. “Thank you.” He said and lifted the fork to his mouth. The food was good, and thankfully his last comment had finally shocked Eren into silence. He should definitely continue to thank the idiot.

 

Levi was in the morgue, wiping down the counters when he heard the door open up behind him. Petra silently began to help him, apparently done with her own desk work. It was a surprisingly slow day, no bodies as of yet to take down. Although that could change at any moment.

“Sir?” Petra said, forcing Levi out of his cleaning caused reverie. She shuffled her feet. “I need to speak to you about something.”

Levi straightened up and turned towards her. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t worry.” She waved her hands in front on him. “It’s not bad news. Not at all. Although, it could be taken that way, somewhat. For you.”

Levi didn’t say anything, but she was acting strange as fuck. Petra usually got right to the point about what she wanted. Levi couldn’t actually recall ever having heard her ramble before.

She took a deep breath. “I’m pregnant, sir. Three month along.”

Two beats of silence passed. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” She was also smiling harder than he had ever seen before. And then her smile was replaced by a frown. “I’ve always wanted a big family, but I’m also quitting coming December. To focus on the baby.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach with a soft look on her round face.

For once, Levi bit his tongue on what he really wanted to say. “You’ll be missed.” He meant it, of course, but he wanted to ask her to stay as well. She was one of the best workers—there was a reason their morgue had gotten by for so long understaffed—and honestly finding someone to replace her was going to be impossible.

“Also, I don’t know if Oluo has talked to you yet or not.” She let out a huff of laughter. “He probably doesn’t want to disappoint you or something stupid like that, but he’s trying to find a better paying job.”

Levi raised an eyebrow. He was losing two people in the same breath. Life really liked shitting on him in unforgiving lumps.

“He loves his job here, he really does, and I’m sorry for doing this to you, but—”

Levi raised his hand, cutting her off. “I understand. There’s no need to apologize.”

The phone attached to the wall began to go off, probably alerting him to a body coming in, and it saved him from the quickly awkward air forming between them. More people were leaving his life, and fuck that sounded pathetic as hell. He watched as Petra answered the phone, and couldn’t help the slight feeling of loneliness overcoming him.

Later that day when Oluo came in, Levi immediately called him into his office. Better to get it over and done with as soon as possible.

“Petra told me you were looking for another job. Are you trying to stay in the same field?”

“Yes, I mean, uh,” Oluo said as he tripped over his own tongue. “When did she tell you?”

“This morning.” Levi sighed and looked up. “If you need any references, feel free to ask me. I would be happy to put in a good word for you anywhere.” He tried his best to convey his sincerity.

“You don’t, I,” Oluo took a deep breath. “Thank you, sir.”

Levi remained silent, only waving him off in dismissal. It was the least he could do. Even if they were creating more work for him with leaving, they were still his staff and he felt responsible that they continued well off. He understood wanting to leave the hospital, he really did.

Levi leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh, and he didn’t do much else for the rest of his shift. But when he got home and found a pot of soup on the stove with a note attached, he couldn’t help but to smile as he felt some of the tension leave his shoulders. Even the spilled portion dried onto the stove and the full sink didn’t diminish his mood further.

His life was erratically spinning out of his control, but at least he had something to come home to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Way late, I know. I moved over the weekend and faced some unexpected problems once I moved in, but that's all taken care of and you get the chapter :) I start class next week, but chapter eight should come out on friday as usual.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being consistently bothered by idiots is quickly becoming a staple in Levi’s life.

“Do you ever smile?” Eren asked. They had been sitting on the couch, Eren with his laptop typing away and Levi eating leftovers and staring at the TV. Levi momentarily glanced over, but chose not to respond.

“Or show emotion at all?” Eren continued as though Levi were listening. “I have a friend kinda like that—her name’s Annie; she was here the other day—but she does have some emotion. You’re basically like stone.”

Levi knew he was blunt but at least he didn’t bother people with asinine mildly insulting questions. He was insulting a more straightforward way, and he had definitely learned to hold his tongue after a few years. Maybe the kid still had a chance to learn.

“Do you have verbal diarrhea?”

“Sometimes, yeah,” Eren admitted. He laughed to himself and Levi had no clue what was so funny. This kid was disturbed. “I start saying things that I don’t want to say out loud and then I just roll with it.” He flashed a smile. “I actually make a lot of friends that way.”

“I’m not your friend.” Now there was blunt with a reason.

Eren looked surprised for a moment before his expression compressed into an almost angry glare. “You don’t have to be so rude.”

“You asked me if I show emotion.” Levi pointed out with a raised eyebrow. “And this isn’t the first time you’ve insulted my expression.

“I didn’t mean to insult you.” Eren crossed his arms defensively. “I’m just trying to figure you out.”

Levi sighed. “There’s nothing to figure out.”

“There’s actually a lot.” Eren moved his laptop to the table and shifted so that he was facing Levi. “You’re a total jerk with an obsession with having everything around you clean, and your facial expression never changes, but you’re also really nice because you let me move here and you let me pay you only a hundred dollars a month when we both know I have a job and I could pay you at least a little more than that. You gave Armin advice and even if you always seem annoyed with me, you never actually do anything.” Eren ran his hand through his hair. “You’re basically like an anti-hero, but without the crushing need for someone to recognize you. Or maybe a Mr. Darcy type, but that’s a bit weird. More like Dantes? Without the thirst for revenge? No, that’s not right either.”

“You think I’m nice, because I just don’t care.” Levi stood up briskly walking away with his bowl. As he rinsed it out, Eren continued muttering to himself, apparently content with comparing him to characters. Levi was about to walk to his room when a thump sounded at his door, followed by a knock.

Before he could tell the kid not to, he was already up headed for the door. Levi plopped back down on the couch. He wasn’t about to try and fight his fate; he just wished he didn’t have to deal with two annoying shits at the same fucking time.

“Hey Levi.” Hanji said as she sat next to him. “Ready to go?”

“I told you I wasn’t going.” Levi enunciated each word, trying to get the idea through Hanji’s thick head.

“Too busy hanging out with Eren?” She said suggestively.

Levi rolled his eyes. “There’s one idiot that seemingly loves to micro analyze me _living_ with me. That’s all I can deal with in one day.”

Hanji turned to Eren taking his hands forcefully into her own. “He’s quite an enigma isn’t he?” She sounded way too fucking excited. “It’s his face definitely. Always so annoyed and he talks like he was raised in a barn, which isn’t that far away from the truth by the way.”

“I asked him about his face, but he avoided the question.” Eren supplied. “Have you ever seen him smile?”

 Hanji snorted. “Actually—”

While she was talking Levi had crept up behind her kicked her not so gently in the back of her knees. “Shut up and leave, Hanji.”

She lost her balance momentarily, stopping just short of crashing into Eren’s chest. Levi crossed his arms, ready to take a complete stand, but Hanji just shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I’ll just go then. Mike and Nanaba are already waiting for me. I just wanted to apologize again for how I acted last time.”

Levi was taken aback for one single second before he cast her a suspicious glance. “Are you trying to guilt me into going?”

“No really.” Hanji shook her head, “I did come over to apologize. I got a little too out of control.”

“A little?”

“More than a little.” She amended. “Maybe if you came out with me, I could show you how serious I am.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him again.

“Please just stop.” Levi heaved a heavy sigh. “Don’t do the same shit as the other night, or I’m leaving your ass behind.”

“So you’re coming then.” When Levi didn’t respond Hanji began pumping her fists in the air victoriously. “Hey Eren. Do you want to join us? We’re going to Maria’s.”

Eren who was still standing awkwardly to the side, shook his head. “No, I have an essay due tonight. And I wouldn’t want to interrupt your date.”

Levi dropped his keys on the floor, while Hanji burst out into loud obnoxious laughter. He stared at Eren no words readily on his lips.

Eren’s eyes flickered between them. “Wow, so that’s one expression you can show.”

“If you ever say something so disgusting again, I’ll fucking kill you.” At Levi’s words Eren flinched slightly, but Hanji only laughed louder.

“That was golden, Eren.” She said with a hefty pat on his back. “I can’t believe you said that. Levi would have killed me a long time ago if we ever dated.” She began chuckling again. “It looked like he almost shit his pants with disgust.”

“I’m sorry.” Eren said and he wasn’t at all apologetic about it. “You two just seemed like you were flirting all the time.”

“Just stop.” Levi said to Eren and grabbed Hanji’s arm as she doubled over again. “Let’s go, shit face.” After dragging her halfway to the elevator, Hanji finally began walking on her own, although ever few minutes she would let out another puff of laughter.

Levi hoped against all odds that she wouldn’t bring it up once they got to Maria’s but the first words out of her mouth when they saw Mike and Nanaba were “Guess what Levi’s roommate said.”

 

The night was winding down—Hanji surprisingly kept her word, only having one drink and then switching to water even when Moblit joined them—when Levi started noticing the odd glances his friends were sending him. Hanji was fidgeting, Moblit was worrying, Nanaba was playing the edges of their shirt, and Mike was gesturing towards Nanaba, trying to be subtle about it. Levi raised his glass of water to his lips when the sudden silence set in, but he wasn’t about to break it. Let them suffer.

“So,” Nanaba began, and stopped looking towards Mike for help. Mike just shrugged his shoulders.

“This might be a little awkward to bring up.” Moblit took over the train wreck of a conversation, while Levi just watched, his irritation rising. “But, you know, Halloween is coming up.”

Levi put his glass down. “It’s still September.” What the fuck were they trying to say?

“Let me handle this.” Hanji said rolling her eyes. “Honestly guys, you’re just making this worst.”

For once, Levi was happy to hear Hanji talk because he was really starting to get annoyed. Nothing could be so bad that they couldn’t say it bluntly.

“So, Halloween’s coming up.” Hanji began, but when Levi still didn’t take the bait she let out an exasperated sigh. “And that means our annual Halloween party that I get to host this year.”

It took only two more seconds for Levi to understand what they were trying to break to him. Erwin. Fuck. He had momentarily forgotten, not his existence—Levi threw away the though that he could never forget Erwin’s’ existence because he wasn’t about to get into that—but that everyone he hung out with was still Erwin’s friends too. And of course he would be invited like always.

“I know Moblit cleans up after you Hanji. I can handle being in you shitty apartment for a few hours,” he said smoothly.

They were looking at him oddly, but they dropped the topic, moving back to safe ground. Levi could handle himself around Erwin. It would be three months since the breakup by then, and why the fuck was he still keeping track of the time? Levi could feel his mood souring, from somewhat relaxed, back to annoyed out of his mind.

Levi walked back to his car after paying his portion of the bill, not quite talking to Mike and Nanaba who were apparently parked near him. He just wanted to get away from them but as he opened his door, Mike followed after him. Levi heaved a sigh and turned to listen.

“You know, we wouldn’t think any less of you if you didn’t want to go.” Mike began. “I know it must be exhausting to hear about this from us over and over again, but there’s no set time limit to getting over someone.”

A part of Levi wanted to say something scathing and angry to get the point across that he didn’t want to deal with their pity, but his conscious held him back, reminding him that they were still his friends. “It’ll be fine,” Levi said and climbed into his car after Mike nodded his head and walked away.

Levi drove, but he didn’t want to go home. Eren wasn’t as irritating as he constantly told him, but Levi wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. Not even Isabel or Farlan. Levi wanted to be over Erwin, he wanted to stop thinking about the man, but on that account Mike had gotten it right. Levi wasn’t alright because if Erwin were to call him that night asking him to come over, Levi would do so immediately. He knew himself that well, and he knew Erwin well enough to know that he would never do that. Hell, Levi didn’t even know where Erwin lived anyway. It was all conjecture and half-formed thoughts that he had been over a million times before. Levi was just tired.

He wasn’t at all surprised that he found himself pulling into his apartment, since he had been driving mostly on autopilot. Maybe Eren would be asleep or in his room, or, on a small chance, he wouldn’t want to ask superfluous questions.

Or—hypothetically of course—Eren could still be in the living room, except this time with half a bottle of wine, sitting upside down on the couch taking pictures of himself with what appeared to be a very expensive camera. His laptop was folded atop the table, with the papers that had been spread everywhere, stacked in a somewhat neat pile.

“What are you doing?” The words slipped out of Levi’s mouth before he had the chance to stop himself and slip into his room quietly.

“Taking selfies” was the more eloquent than Levi expected response—that is, until Eren flashed him a lopsided smile. “Come take a picture with me.”

“I’m not quite sure how these things usually work, but I don’t think that’s how you should use a camera like that.”

“Art is what you make it to be.” Eren swung his legs from off the backside of the couch. “And I think my face is pretty artistic.”

Levi rolled his eyes and surprised himself by sitting in the armchair. “Cocky brat, aren’t you?”

Eren gasped. “Oh my god, was that a smile? Did I make you laugh?”

Levi covered his mouth involuntarily. “Why are you so invested in my emotional state?” He asked instead of responding. That wasn’t what he meant to say, but fuck it all, he wasn’t really controlling his mouth at this point. Maybe Eren’s verbal diarrhea was contagious.

Eren shrugged. “Habit, I guess?” After a moment, he elaborated. “I miss my job, you know? And not just the perks of free housing and a meal plan. I was really damned good at talking to people, making them tell me their problems and stuff. Being an RA over the freshmen residences was the best, though. It was amazing how some people came in being shy and scared and then ended the year as the most popular guy in the hall.” Eren spread his arms. “And I got to help the process along.”

“Until you punched a guy in the face.” Levi couldn’t help but to add.

“He punched me first.” Eren’s smile began to fade. “And it wasn’t in the residence hall where it happened; that horsefaced asswipe just happened to live in my hall. As much as I miss my job, I would have punched him again if it came down to it.”

“Hmmm.” Levi leaned his head back, closing his eyes as silence—interrupted only by the shutter clicking a few more times on Eren’s camera—enveloped them.

“Do I annoy you a lot?” Eren asked suddenly.

Levi opened his eyes and glanced curiously over to Eren.

“I mean, usually when I talk to you, you either don’t respond or you do and it sounds kinda angry. I know some people are just like that, and I don’t mean to insult you, really.” Eren sighed. “I keep asking about your face and stuff because I honestly can’t tell what you’re thinking ever.”

“You do talk too much.” Levi said without adding any real bite to his voice.

“Sorry.”

“But you’re not that bad to have around.” Levi stood and grabbed the wine from Eren, taking it back to the kitchen.

“I was still drinking that, you know.”

“Half a bottle is good enough for one night.”

“Next time you should drink with me. Make it a mini-party.”

“I don’t drink, kid.” Levi set the bottle back in the fridge.

Eren was taking pictures of the living room, from the vases sitting on the shelves to the bookshelf, cluttered with his own books. When Levi stepped back out, he pointed the camera at him, but after Levi’s statement, he lowered it.

“Why not?”

Levi’s eyes roamed over the room, but he didn’t feel like cleaning up the mess at that moment. He needed sleep. It could wait until the morning, everything could just wait until the morning. Levi sighed.

“I’ve seen vices like that ruin too many good people.”

When Eren only responded with a curious stare, Levi padded his way over to his room.

“Goodnight, Eren,” he said before he closed his door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who reads and enjoys this story! I feel like I don't say that enough but, this story just reached a hundred kudos and I've been getting some really nice comments lately, and I just want everyone to know that I appreciate it all.  
> Also, Eren's an amatuer photographer, mostly thanks to kittyotakuwriter :)  
> One more thing! The updates will be moving to Saturday, which gives me a little more time for homework and such, but don't worry; it's still going to be updated weekly, so see you next week.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another fucking day that ends in blood and talks that are a little too much for Levi.

When Levi’s shoulders ached from moving bodies all night, that next morning had no chance in hell of being the start of a good day. One six car accident on a major highway that ended with four dead, three in resident patients dead, and most likely—considering that two more people were still in the ICU from the accident, on top of the regular crowd—more to come later. All of this in one twelve hour shift.

Erd and Gunter had, of course, been helping out—Erd staying a little late, which Levi would log in the system later—but they all had been taxed, so when Oluo came in for the shift change, Levi wasn’t necessarily in the best state of mind. At all.

Levi only grunted in response when a knock sounded at his office door. He had just gotten off the phone, beginning arrangements for where the bodies would go. The police wanted the bodies to go to their examiner to find out what exactly had happened. He didn’t have to deal with families directly, but he made times and appointments with funeral homes for pickups. He had to fill out paper work to see who had donated their bodies and then schedule autopsies, which meant bringing up Hanji’s schedule.

“Sir?” Oluo said as he opened the door.

“What is it?” Levi still needed to fill out a few more files before he could go home. Just a few more and he would finally be able to lay down and forget about his shitty ass job.

“Petra told me that you liked tea in the mornings.”

Levi looked up immediately at his words and wanted to thank whatever god that blessed him with the vision of a Starbucks cup in Oluo’s hand. Or thank Petra, but whatever.

“Thanks,” he said with more intonation in his voice than he had given through the whole night. This was the energy boost he really fucking needed. After Oluo had left, Levi downed half of the cup almost immediately. He rubbed at his bleary eyes and returned to his paper work with renewed vigor.

Twenty minutes later—and an hour after his shift was supposed to end—Levi grabbed his things and walked out. He was almost home free, when he spotted Hanji just getting out of her car. He surprised himself by stopping, but he honestly didn’t even have the energy to escape her and her annoyingly exuberant greeting—which never came.

“You look like shit.” He stated as she walked closer. Her hair was half out of her more messy than usual ponytail, and her eyes had bags almost as dark as his under them. She was usually a wreck, but even this was overstated for her.

“Thanks for the confidence boost.” Hanji tried to smile and that only drove Levi’s frown deeper.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Oh, just the normal.” She was still trying to keep her voice light. “I’m a little hungover from last night.”

“Bullshit. You had one glass last night.” Levi glared at her. “Or did you forget I was there too?” Hanji never lied, and that immediately tipped Levi off, that is, if her haggard appearance hadn’t.

“It’s really nothing, Levi. I just had a bad morning.” Hanji laughed and waved her hands in surrender. “I have to go now. I’m already late as it is, and I heard about the accident too.” She laughed. “You must be too tired to deal with me right now.”

Hanji went to walk off, but Levi grabbed her arm before she could go. “Don’t go around telling me to rely on you if you can’t do the same. Just remember _that,_ Hanji.” Levi let her go, but she didn’t immediately move. He was a fucking hypocrite and she could, in theory, point that out, but she was being one too, so he supposed they were even on that account.

“I know.” Hanji nodded at him like a dutiful child. “But it’s really nothing.”

Levi had to be content with that because with a small wave, she kept walking. That wasn’t Hanji weird, that was some whole other level of fucked up, but there was really nothing he could do about it at that moment, not if she was trying to lie to him about it. Still, his irritation rose as he opened his door with more force than necessary.

The ride back was uneventful and he breathed a sigh of relief when he couldn’t see or hear Eren anywhere in the apartment. As much as Levi was used to his job and used to the toll, there were days where he just wanted to be alone in his misery—even if he was rarely left alone by anyone. Maybe he wasn’t as used to death as he thought.

By the time he got out the shower, he could hear the pattering of rain outside his window, perfectly matched to the mood he was in. Levi was tired on a molecular level, but instead of wandering to his room to lay down, he sat on the couch with the TV as his only companion. He didn’t know what to do with himself but to sit there.

He wanted to talk to Erwin.

The realization didn’t hit him as hard as he thought it would have, rather; it was just a confirmation of what he hadn’t wanted to admit. Levi sighed. Maybe being friends would work out for them, maybe Levi would be able to talk to Erwin like he used to. Levi stared at him phone sitting innocently on the table, but he couldn’t bring himself to even pick it up to dial the familiar number. It wouldn’t really change anything anyways.

He needed to call Isabel and Farlan—they hadn’t talked in a long time, and he had never told them about the breakup. He needed to figure out what was wrong with Hanji. He needed to go to sleep, so he would be awake for the night shift again, but instead, Levi propped his feet up and laid his head on the couch, not even pretending to follow what was happening on the TV.

 

Levi jerked into an upright position. He could hear heavy footsteps outside his door and in the next moment the door slammed open, harshly hitting the wall. His eyes immediately met with Eren’s. He was standing in the doorway soaking wet, his hand covering his nose as blood dripped on the floor. There was a bruise under his eye and he just looked like shit in general. Eren looked away first.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, his voice a little pained and far more than just a little angry. “I didn’t think you would be here.”

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Sorry,” Eren repeated, he took a step forward, about to make his way into the living room.

“Don’t move,” Levi ordered as he sprung to his feet. “Just stay there and don’t you dare get any blood on the carpet.” He took a towel from the spare closet and marched back over. While holding the towel to Eren’s face, Levi led them both to the kitchen, his hand resting on the small of Eren’s back. “Hold your head down over the sink and press your fingers to the bridge until it stops.”

Eren did as he was told, while Levi went to his room to find the first aid kit. Eren was still in the same spot when he came back out, with a look of intense irritation. At least he had simmered down, if only a little bit. And the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

“You can let go of your nose now.” Levi said as he turned on the faucet and began wetting a cloth. “Come here.”

“Huh?”

Levi let out an irritated sigh. “Lean down so I can wash your face.”

“Oh.” Eren was speaking in muted monosyllable replies, his hands fisted at his side, but he did as Levi said, letting him gently pat down his face with warm water.

Levi felt along the bridge of his nose. “How much does it hurt?”

“It’s fine.”

Levi kept in the blunt insult he had ready on his tongue. “You still need to go to an actual doctor after this, just to make sure it’s not broken.”

“It’ll be fine.”

Levi could tell that Eren was in no state of mind to listen, but it didn’t stop him from glaring at the kid. “Whatever. Just go clean yourself up.”

“Fine.” Eren stomped off, probably not even noticing the fact that he was still wearing his shoes and tracking dirt on the carpet. As soon as he was gone, Levi began washing his hands, feeling as dirty as when he had left his job. Then he went back over to the spare closet to find the carpet cleaner with another heavy sigh.

When Eren came out Levi was bent over on the ground scrubbing the mud and blood—some of which that had dripped onto the carpet despite everything.

“I’m sorry.” Eren said and the way his voice dropped made Levi look up. “I didn’t mean to be such a mess. I’m sorry.”

“You said that already.” Levi said harsher than he intended from the way Eren flinched away from him. Was the kid about to actually cry? He certainly hoped not. “What happened?” Levi tried his best to sound gentle.

“I’ll clean that up.” Eren didn’t seem to hear what Levi was saying. “It’s my fault anyway.”

Eren looked and sounded like a lost fucking puppy, from the way he wasn’t looking straight at Levi to the self-pity in his voice. It was annoying as shit, but Levi quelled his emotions—not that hard considering—and tried his very fucking hardest to be understanding. “It’s fine; you’ll do a shitty job of cleaning anyway.” Not exactly what he wanted to say. “Just sit there and tell me what happened to you.”

Eren curled up on the couch, his head resting on his knees. “I fucked up,” he whispered.

“I gathered that.” Levi deadpanned as he continued with his task. “Stop stalling and just tell me, or don’t tell me. I don’t give a shit.”

“I got into a fight.”

“Did you win?”

Eren glanced over at him and after a beat of silence spoke, “yeah, but I shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

“So why did you?”

“Because he pissed me off.” Eren’s voice was getting steadier and Levi breathed a mental sigh of relief. He hated dealing with crying people.

“Just tell me what happened and stop stalling.”

Levi watched Eren chew on his lip before he started speaking. “It was the same guy as last time. I was walking with Marco, after my class, you know, and he stopped us and started shit talking to me in front of what I assume was his douchebag entourage.” Eren shrugged. “I started getting angry, but Marco, he’s always been a peacemaker, and so he kind of talked me down and we start walking off.”

Levi could see Eren starting to get angry again from the way his nails started digging into his legs, but didn’t think to interrupt the story.

“And then the fucking bastard, or someone with him—I don’t know—threw a book at both of us and started calling us fucking fags and even Marco was mad, but he told me to keep walking but I turned around and punched the idiot.” Eren ran his hand through his hair. “And the rest is history.”

Levi finished with the spot he was scrubbing before he replied. “Do you regret it?”

Eren seemed surprised at the question. “I guess?” He thought for a second. “I shouldn’t have beat his ass the way I did. I should have just walked away.”

“But do you regret it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not asking you whether you should have—fighting is usually a bad idea either way. But you shouldn’t regret something that was obviously bound to happen from the beginning. He was looking for a target and you stood up for yourself and your friend. Now it’s his decision whether or not to grow from it and stop being a jackass. Don’t dwell on what already happened; instead just learn to fix your behavior next time it happens.”

Eren was staring again, but Levi ignored his and gave him time to absorb what he had said while he moved on to the next foot print in his carpet. It was quiet for a while, only the muted drone of the TV in the background and Levi’s constant scrubbing for noise.

“I think that’s the most I’ve heard you say ever.” Eren said in a hushed tone, like he was sharing a secret.

Levi rolled his eyes, not really offended at all. “Don’t get used to it.”

“Thanks.”

This time it was Levi who looked up in surprise, only to catch a glimpse of Eren’s blushing face before he hid it behind his knees.

 Levi cleared his throat. “Just tell me in advance the next time you come here bleeding everywhere.”

Eren laughed lightly. “I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm too tired to write something witty here.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi's having a good day and he honestly has no fucking idea what to do with that information.

Levi rolled over in his bed with a yawn. He immediately reached for his phone, making sure he didn’t have any messages from the hospital. It was two in the afternoon—and considering that Levi had gotten off of work at six that morning, drove home, took a shower, and ate breakfast before laying down—he had actually gotten more sleep than he was used to. It took him another few minutes of inactivity before he forced himself to sit up and then leave his bed.

After another shower, Levi padded into the kitchen in a pair of sweats. He didn’t have to be back at work until the morning shift, and for once, his apartment was silent. Eren was always making some sort of noise, either from music, the TV, the clatter of his typing or his stupid voice.  It was as though the kid couldn’t be quiet if it killed him, but the noiseless state told Levi that Eren was out and he could relax by himself for a while.

He brewed himself a cup of green tea after a moment of consideration, before he sat on the couch. Levi flipped through the channels, feeling more restless than anything else. As much as he complained about going out, having the night shift meant that basically everyone else he knew was still working at the hospital—and it didn’t help that Hanji had actually decided to grow up and lighten up with her constant partying. After assuring himself that there really wasn’t anything to watch, he picked up his phone and dialed a familiar number.

“Hey, Levi,” Farlan answered after three rings, “long time no speak.”

“Sorry about that.” He _did_ feel a little guilty, and worse, he didn’t actually have an excuse for why it took him so long to call them, so he wasn’t about to think up one on the fly.

“It’s nothing,” Farlan chuckled. “Although I can already tell you that Isabel’s gonna call you later today ‘cause she’s not here now and she’s totally gonna hate me for it.”

“What time will she be back? I’d rather just call her.”

“There’s no telling with her. Let’s see…” Levi could almost see Farlan shrug. “She’s not working today, and her class ends at three, so she’ll be back around then? Maybe? She has too many friends to hang out with.”

Levi leaned back and listened as Farlan began rambling about their lives—with him only interrupting with the occasional sound. How Isabel ate too much when she went out all the time. How Farlan couldn’t understand his new economics teacher and ended up much better than he thought on his first test—especially considering that he didn’t have time to study. It was all mundane, but Levi sat there with a smile on his face, listening. Fuck, he definitely missed them.

“Oh, by the way,” Farlan said after a pause in the conversation. “I know it’s a really long way off, but me and Isabel are thinking off flying over there for Christmas holiday. We both already requested a week off. I mean, it’s been quite a while since we were able to talk face to face.”

Levi hummed. He would have to tell Eren about it. And make sure that the pull out bed still worked correctly. “That should be fine. Tell me the dates and I’ll book the flights for you.”

Farlan laughed. “There you go again, trying to pay for everything. Don’t worry, we’ve been saving up for the trip; you’ve given us enough already.”

Levi wanted to argue that he hadn’t given them nearly enough of anything, but it was already a dead beaten horse between them that caused more arguments than anything else. “If that’s fine with you.”

“I swear, you’re a walking talking charity sometimes Levi. You didn’t even bother to ask Erwin if it was fine with him, did you?”

Levi had lifted his cup to take another sip, but as soon as those words left Farlan’s mouth, he slowly set it back down. “Actually, Erwin moved out,” Levi said evenly.

He could actually hear Farlan spluttering on the other end. “Wait, what? When? Why? What happened? You literally just told me everything was fine with you. What the fuck?”

“I think you’re more shocked than I was.”

“You were shocked? He left _you_? But why?”

“You sound like fucking Hanji. It’s making me a little sick actually.” Levi rolled his eyes, but the slight laugh underlying his voice made the harsh words have no bite.

“Sorry, sorry. Tell me the story.”

“It was two, three months ago? Fuck, I don’t remember. It was in August sometime. I came home. He was packed. Said he was leaving. Wanted to still be friends, and left. A few weeks later Hanji called, and I ended up getting a roommate.”

“Wow. Well, you’ve certainly been busy haven’t you?” Levi could tell Farlan was still trying to take in his admittedly shitty summary in. “Are you okay, though? _Were_ you okay?”

Levi made a noncommittal sound and then decided to clarify a little. “I’m alright now.”

“That’s good,” Farlan said warmly. “I didn’t want to come over there early to beat Erwin’s ass.”

Levi chuckled. “Like I couldn’t have done that myself if I wanted to.”

“So, the new roommate?” Farlan asked and fuck it, he was totally wiggling his eyebrows in that annoying way. Levi could fucking hear it.

“No. Don’t even start with that.”

Levi had to pull the phone away as Farlan laughed straight into his ear.

 

After two hours of talking—Isabel came home and whined about an hour in—Levi hung up, but he still didn’t move off the couch. Instead, he continued to drink his now cold tea in the silence. Telling Farlan and then Isabel about what had happened hadn’t come with the familiar punch in his gut like before. There was still a feeling there, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as before.

He was actually having a pretty good day.

There weren’t any more deaths than usual at his earlier shift, and from the lack of calls, he suspected it was a normal day. Mike’s random fact of the day was how the first endoscopes were tested by sword swallowers—not really funny, but somewhat disgustingly interesting. He had gotten more than four hours of sleep, and Eren wasn’t around to bother him. Plus, the apartment was already clean.

Levi finally got off his ass and stood in front of the bookshelf, fully intent on reading a book while he actually had time for one. He reached for the book he had begun last time, but set his hand down. That one had been boring as shit.

_The Count of Monte Cristo_. That title caught his eye, and he tried to remember when he had heard about it. He picked it up, but there was no sleeve with a description to read. Even though it was hardcover, the book was extremely worn down, and as he flipped through it, he could see that some of the pages had been dog eared and words written in the margins. Definitely Eren’s book and most likely something he had read more than once. With a shrug, Levi went to his room to begin reading.

It only took him a short time after starting to realize that Eren was the one who mentioned the book to him, even comparing him to the main character—which Levi completely didn’t see—this character was way too fucking happy go lucky to be anything like him. But the book was interesting enough to understand why Eren seemed to love it so much.

A few hours after he had laid down, he heard Eren arriving and with him, he brought the normal level on noise. Levi actually contemplating going out to talk to him, but decided against it almost immediately. He didn’t mind the company, especially since Eren had finally stopped trying to be so combative, but maybe Levi was more into the book than he thought he would be.

He had read another good chunk of the book when there was a hesitant knock at his door. Well, there went his plan for ignoring the kid. He set it down with a sigh.

“What do you want?” Levi asked as he opened his door.

Eren shuffled his feet, not quite looking Levi in the face. “I wasn’t sure if you were here,” he mumbled.

Levi raised an eyebrow instead of responding to such an idiotic statement.

“I mean,” Eren cleared his throat. “I, uh, made some muffins? As a thank you and apology. They’re pumpkin.”

Levi blinked. “An apology for what?”

“For getting tipsy and asking some invasive questions, and for making you clean up when I came back all,” he gesture to his face, where Levi could still see the faint yellowish bruising, “messed up. I wanted to do something earlier, but I’ve been a bit busy.”

Levi gestured for Eren to move aside. “You could have thanked me by going to an actually doctor like I told you to.” Levi had no proof that Eren hadn’t, especially since it had been two weeks since the incident, but it was really fucking obvious when Levi told him to go that he wouldn’t.

Eren followed after him like the fucking puppy he was. “You work in a hospital,” he countered. “I trust your judgment.”

“And the last time I saw a broken nose, it was on a cadaver. My judgment on a living person is extremely questionable.” Levi’s eyes ran along the counters, noting that Eren had wiped everything down and done the dishes before he had decided to call him out. Although there was still some floor on the stove, and Eren hadn’t bothered to put anything back where he found it, it passed inspection. Barely.

“You at least went to school for it.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “That was more than a few years ago, kid.” He picked up a muffin, ignoring the expectant look Eren was giving him.

“Is it good?” Eren asked as soon as he took a bite.

Levi glared at him and took him time chewing before he spoke. “Calm down, idiot. It’s good.”

Eren flashed him a large grin. “Good.”

Levi continued to eat the more than just good muffin, but with Eren’s eyes peering straight at him, he was starting to feel really fucking uncomfortable. He could actually feel his good mood starting to drop into annoyance.

“My mom taught me how to cook.” Eren blurted out. “I used to help her out in the kitchen when I was younger. My sister always gets jealous that I inherited the good cooking gene and she didn’t.” He continued talking, and honestly, Levi tuned most of it out—although, from the way Eren continued on, he was sure that he was used to being tuned out.

When he was done eating, Levi immediately began cleaning up what Eren had missed.

“I still didn’t clean enough?”

“It’s getting better.” Levi said. “You actually made more than just a shitty attempt.”

“I think your standards are too high.”

“Its common knowledge to put things back where you found them.” Levi held up the bag of sugar to demonstrate before he set it back in the cabinet.

“Oh, well,” Eren fumbled over his words. “I did try at least.” At Levi’s disbelieving stare he added, “And your standards are really high.”

“Whatever makes you feel better about yourself.”

Eren wandered away after that, muttering to himself as he turned TV on. Levi finished cleaning and stood in the kitchen for a moment before he decided on his next plan of action. He walked back to his room and grabbed the book off of his bed before sitting down on the couch. He had barely gotten through a page before Eren had noticed.

“You’re reading _The Count of Monte Cristo_?” He sounded far too fucking excited.

“No, I just like holding books in my lap,” he deadpanned.

“No, I mean, that’s my favorite book. Most people know Dumas for _The Three Musketeers_ , but that one doesn’t even compare. This book is basically the reason I like literature so much. ”

“I figured. Or you’re just a total slob with even your books.” Levi didn’t look up when he spoke.

“Yeah, sorry. I have a better version in my room. I’ve had that one since I was like thirteen or something. I _was_ a slob back then.” Eren scooted over to peer at what Levi was reading. “What part are you at?”

“The stupid kid just got kidnapped at the carnival.”

“Albert? Has the Count showed up to save them yet?”

Levi set the book down, glaring at Eren. “Don’t spoil it for me idiot.”

“Shit, sorry,” Eren held up his hands in surrender, “I’ll stop talking now.”

Fucking finally. Eventually Eren stopped with the awkward staring and finally took his laptop out to do whatever he had to do. It wasn’t the silence he had before, but by now he had gotten used to the change in pace. It was a new normal that Levi was surprisingly fine with. Mostly. Not that he would admit it. Ever.

When he got to a stopping place, Levi set the book down and padded back into the kitchen. The muffin was good, but as he stared into the fridge, he realized that he hadn’t eaten anything else since waking up. He didn’t feel like a box dinner, and there weren’t any more leftovers sitting in the fridge. Well, why the hell not?

He peeked back into the living room. “Hey, Eren.” Levi waited until he looked up at him curiously. “We’re going out for dinner, my treat.”

Eren furrowed his brows, but seemed to use his good sense—what little bit he had—and realize that he couldn’t argue his way out of the invitation. “Sure,” he said with a smile that stretched across his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the break! I ended up getting a little sick and decided to take the week off to recover a bit, and I'm mostly fine now :)  
> I wanted to clarify that this chapter takes place two weeks after the last one, in case that wasn't very clear. There's gonna be one more chapter until the halloween party and that'll end october, although I don't know how long the party will be (honestly I dont even know everything thats going to happen there)  
> Also I know it probably seems like Levi's getting over Erwin relatively fast but trust me on that one; i know what im doing ;)


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren's acting weird. Hanji's acting weird. They're really shitting on Levi's good time, but whatever.

 “Is this your favorite restaurant or something?” Eren asked as he sat in the booth across from Levi.

He didn’t answer immediately. Honestly Levi had to think about it for a second. He had been coming to Maria’s since his college days. He couldn’t remember which one of them had thought to go there first—although he was pretty sure it was Mike—but it was still a nice place to go. He had yet to find somewhere else that met his standards so well.

“Something like that,” he settled on saying.

Eren looked annoyed at his vague answer. “Do you ever go somewhere else?” Eren tried again.

Levi shrugged as he reached for a breadstick. “As long as the place isn’t dirty I’ll try it.”

“Really high cleaning standards,” Eren said in a sing song voice just loud enough for him to hear.

“No,” Levi said while he rolled his eyes, “If you eat in a restaurant with dust on the tables and food that looks slimy then that’s a personal problem.”

Eren set down the menu he was scanning to scrunch his nose in disgust. “That actually happened?”

“If Hanji ever invites you out to eat anywhere but here, there’s a high change of that happening. She calls it exotic. I call it disgusting as fuck.”

Eren winced. “Has she ever gotten food poisoning?”

“I’m confident that she has a stomach of steel.”

“Armin says she laughs while she does an autopsy.” Eren chuckled to himself. “He’s actually kinda terrified of her.”

Levi grimaced. “She’s fucking crazy; he should be scared.”

Their conversation stalled out, but it wasn’t an awkward silence like it would have been before. The waiter, an old woman who had been working there as long as Levi had been coming, took their order, and they continued to talk as they waited. Eren insisted on paying for his half of the meal, and Levi just shrugged and let him do as he wished. Something about the way Eren insisted seemed off, how he wasn’t quite looking at Levi, and the almost shy smile that belied his words, but Levi let him do as he wished.

When they walked out, Eren trailed after him, but Levi could feel those stupid eyes searing holes into his back still. Eren had a serious staring problem that the kid didn’t seem to realize himself. Even when he had friends over—Levi had never tried to keep track of how many friends the brat had, but he just knew it was way too many—Eren would stare after him until he left his sight. It was more than a little unnerving, and Levi was just on the verge of saying something about it until Eren practically skipped ahead of him.

“I can understand why that’s your favorite restaurant.” Eren said as he flashed a stunning smile.

Levi rolled his eyes instead of answering.

“You know,” Eren continued, “the first time we came here, with Hanji and Armin I mean, I was a totally jerk.” Eren laughed. “Armin was pretty damn pissed at me for a while.”

“You weren’t that bad.” Levi said as he unlocked his car. “If you mean that your behavior has gotten any less annoying, then you’re wrong on that account.”

“Can’t you ever say anything nice? I made you muffins.”

Levi snorted. He had been a little distracted by starting the car and turning out of the parking lot, but the downright accusing tone in Eren’s voice definitely caught his attention. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re still a little shit.”

“Obviously I’m more funny than annoying now.”

“The only thing funny about you is the way you look.” Juvenile and Levi knew it.

“Wha—I look perfectly fine.” Eren crossed his arms and sat back in the seat. Levi side eyed him as he maneuvered through traffic, slightly worried that he had actually angered the idiot. But after barely a minute of silence, he heard Eren mumble, “There’s nothing wrong with how I look,” to himself.

“I’m sorry princess; did I hurt your feelings?”

“You’re a real fucking dick sometimes. I thought you didn’t like confrontation.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why are you always so disagreeable? It must be tiring to be a crotchety old man all the time.”

Levi may have turned a little too sharply because of that comment, but he didn’t let that show on his face. “I’m only honest, kid. It’s not my fault that you can’t handle it.”

“You just insulted my face! How the hell is that honesty?”

Levi actually laughed at the way Eren’s pitched fucking escalated and shook through his words. “Are you fucking kidding me,” Levi said mostly to himself. It was something. Something had set his pleasure on high, allowing himself to finally shake off the last of the fog that had followed him around, followed him long enough to have him believing that it was normal.

He pulled into the apartment complex with mirth still shining in his eyes. Eren hadn’t said anything else and when Levi looked over at him—Eren wasn’t even moving to get out of his car and that’s what worried him the most—his mouth was hanging open as though his jaw had unhinged itself and his green eyes were wider than Levi had ever seen before.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Levi asked.

“You know when you laugh, you’re really—”Eren still seemed lost wherever, but he cut himself off and jerked back before he could finish whatever it was that he was saying.

Levi lifted an eyebrow in curiosity.

“It’s nothing. Sorry.” Eren scrambled out of the car and was already through the door before Levi followed after him. The kid was fucking weird, but this was a new level. When Levi caught up to him in front of the elevator, Eren seemed less agitated, so he let it go. When they arrived back at the apartment Levi grabbed the book he had left on the table, and with a wave, closed his door. Eren didn’t say anything else, but Levi could most definitely still feel his eyes on his back.

 

Eren was always surrounded by his friends, something Levi didn’t usually mind, but when it was blondie—Levi could remember his name at this point, he just preferred the nickname—and Eren’s sister—whose name he had promptly forgotten without guilt—Levi honestly wanted to get out of his own apartment as quickly as possible.

Eren’s staring problem had seemingly gotten way fucking worse. Armin still wouldn’t meet his eyes even when they were talking, although that had gotten much better. And Eren’s fucking sister glared at him as though she were trying to kill him. He may had gotten used to the level of annoyance Eren drew out of him, but with them all together, his nerves were quickly reaching their end.

He sat in the armchair, still reading Eren’s book as he waited for Hanji. Only Levi’s foot tapping a solid rhythm on the floor showed how close he was to just waiting outside for the shit face. Just as he was working up the energy to get up though, the door swung open and the eyes attempting to burn holes into his skin finally fucked off.

“Are you ready?” Hanji asked before she registered everyone else. She smiled. “Hey Armin, Eren and?”

“My sister, Mikasa.” Eren gestured to her, but the girl didn’t say anything.

“Stop talking so much.” Levi stood and set the book back on the shelf before he made his way to the foyer. “We’re leaving.”

“Alrighty, have a nice day.” Hanji waved to them before Levi dragged her out of his apartment. They made it all the way to the car before Hanji spoke again, which was a fucking miracle. “I’ll take it that you’re not in a good mood anymore.”

“Give me five minutes away from those kids and I’ll be fine.”

“Holy shit.” Hanji laughed “Is it really that bad?”

“Only when they’re trying to kill me with the stares.”

“That’s good.” Hanji beamed at him, and why the hell did he let her drive because she was an accident waiting to happen. “I need you at your best in order to optimize your shopping potential.”

“That is in no way fucking good. I don’t even think you try to make any fucking sense at this point.”

“Nope. I realized you ignore half of what I say years ago.”

“Was I that obvious?” Whoops.

“More like you didn’t care if I noticed or not.” She glanced him and back to the road, practically slamming on her breaks, when she noticed that the light had turned. “I totally had that under control.”

“Bullshit, Hanji.” Levi reached over and turned her head back towards the road. “Just get us to the first store and I’m driving the rest of the way.”

“But it’s my car.” She stretched out each syllable and slumped over on the steering wheel. “I know what I’m doing.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Just focus on the road.”

They didn’t have any more incidents as they finally made it to the Halloween store. One had popped up on every street corner at the beginning of October, and now that the holiday was less than two weeks away, it meant that the place would be more crowded than ever. He honestly had no fucking clue as to how Hanji had convinced him to go with her.

She ran inside the moment the doors opened for her, immediately pressing every button she could find for the electronic decorations to jump out at her. Levi felt more like her guardian than anything else, as he dragged her away from a toy girl whose head popped up from her body.

“Focus, shit face.” Levi said as he dragged her over towards the decorations. “You’re planning a party, remember?”

“Well, actually,” Hanji said with an impish smile that told Levi that she was about to do something. “Moblit and I already bought most of the decorations we needed.”

“Then why the hell are we here?”

“I’ve been elected to be the one to get you a costume this year.”

Levi glared at her. “I have a costume.”

“You have a hoodie with bones on it.”

“I don’t see the problem with that.” He made a damned good skeleton.

“That’s the same costume you’ve had for three years.”

Levi lifted an eyebrow. “Still not a problem.”

Hanji blew out an irritated sigh. “At least look around with me. You might find something you like.”

“You already forced me here, didn’t you? I don’t think I have much of a choice.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Levi wanted to say some form of ‘fuck you and your spirit,’ but he refrained and let Hanji hold up costumes for him to say no to—who the fuck would ever even _want_ to be a hotdog he didn’t even want to know. After two hours of walking around crowds—thank god most small children ran out of the store crying, so he didn’t have to deal with that—he finally settled on a pair of cat ears and a tail. Another costume that would last him three years, and hopefully by then he would stop being required to wear a costume.

Levi somewhat forced Hanji to take him out to lunch, as a thank you for going along with her stupid ideas. And then she dragged him to another store, then another. And another. Hanji wasn’t buying anything; she just wanted to look and force Levi to be with her on her day off.

Or maybe he was being soft because Hanji had obviously not been feeling well recently and still refused to tell anything about it to him. He hadn’t pushed the subject since that first time, but her exuberance seemed more forced. After a brief argument he relented and let her drive her car back to his apartment, where the awkward trio was still spread out in his living room.

Eren stared. His sister glared. And Armin’s gaze flitted away after a few seconds.

“Hey Eren,” Hanji said. “I’m gonna tell you, because Levi has a habit of forgetting important things.”

“What is it?”

“Well, this goes out to Armin, and Mikasa if she wants, and whoever else you want to invite.” Levi had no clue how Hanji remembered names so well. “If you’re free, I’m hosting a Halloween party.” She side eyed Levi. “Costumes _are_ required. It’ll be lots of fun.”

“Sure,” Eren said with a grin. “I don’t have any plans for Halloween yet.”

“Sounds like fun.” Mikasa—what a weird ass name—nodded her head in agreement with Armin’s words.

“Get Levi to tell you the specifics,” Hanji said as she checked her phone. “I’m running late for dinner.” She practically slammed the door shut on her way out.

Levi breathed a sigh of relief, and before the brats could begin their ritualistic observance, Levi was already in his room with the door closed tightly behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More fluff, with little to nothing else happening.   
> Just a warning, October is the month of midterms and essays for me, so dont be surprised if a chapter ends up late, or a skip a week. I dont plan on taking any breaks, but more than likely its gonna happen sometime this month. So sorry in advance.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween party part 1: Cue the annoying costumes and the almost fun times.

 Levi laid on his bed, his eyes closed, reveling in the feeling of complete relaxation—or it would be that, if it weren’t for the rambunctious yelling coming from his living room. It was half past nine, and Levi could find no fucking reason as to why it was taking Eren and his friends so long to get ready. From what Eren had told him, they had just gotten back from a different party with their own friends, so they should have been ready when they arrived, and no need for the fussing going on.

“—No it’s in the dresser,” Eren shouted, then sounding frustrated, “Never mind; I’ll get it. Just finish Armin’s face for me.”

“My face is fine. We’re already late, Eren.” At least Armin wasn’t as loud.

“It’ll only take like two more minutes.”

Levi was pretty sure that was the fifth time the kid had said that same sentence, but he was distracted by his phone ringing. He didn’t bother to sit up as he fished it out of his pocket.

“Where are you, Levi?” Hanji said immediately. “It’s super late, even for you. Are you not coming? If you decided not to come, then I’m coming over there and I’m gonna drag you out.”

“I’ll be there,” Levi said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Hanji wasn’t drunk yet, but he definitely knew that she had been drinking. “Don’t try to drive in your condition.”

“I’m fine,” She scoffed. “What’s taking you so long?”

“I’m waiting on the brats that you insisted on inviting. They have to refresh their makeup or some shit like that.”

“So what you’re saying is you have the lamest outfit again.” She was laughing at him. “I think we should start giving you a prize.”

“Then there would never be a reason for me to give a shit.”

He was distracted from her response from a knock at his door, most likely Eren signaling that they were finally ready.

“I don’t care.” The perfect catch all response. “I’ll be there in half an hour.” He hung up and finally got up off his ass to leave.

“We’re ready, Levi,” Eren added.

Levi swung open his door. “I realized that.” He was slightly taken aback by the black circles around Eren’s eyes, a stark contrast to the white covering the rest of his face. Well, shit. He was suddenly very glad that Hanji had made him change his costume because there was no way in hell he would have shown up in his skeleton hoodie while Eren was wearing a complete skeleton outfit. Armin was what he assumed to be a zombie, his blonde hair sprayed grey, and blood painted on his face. Eren’s sister was a ninja, the simplest outfit from the three.

“You’re a cat.” Eren was still standing in his doorway, an odd look on his face.

“Yes.” Levi rolled his eyes. “Congratulations; you can see.” Levi began putting on his shoes, hoping that Eren would catch the hint, but he only stayed there.

“I hope this isn’t too much?” Armin murmured, staring down at his outfit.

“Don’t worry. Hanji will love that shit.” She would probably be just as made up as they were, if not more. She had in past years come up with some pretty good—and embarrassing, in Levi’s opinion—costumes with Moblit.

“You only have a tail and ears.” Eren had finally came back to his senses, but Levi could recognize that annoying tone. Sure enough, Eren picked up a marker from the table and held it up towards Levi. “At least let me give you some whiskers.”

“No.” He glared.

“But it’s Halloween.”

“I will leave you here and you can figure out how to get Hanji’s on your own.”

“It’ll be fine. Just leave it, Eren” Armin held up his hands, trying to be the peacemaker between them, but Eren just glared at his friend. Mikasa didn’t say anything.

“You’ll look a million times better.” Eren tipped his head to the side, as if he didn’t just insult him.

“No.” Levi wasn’t about to humor the stupid kid. “Hurry up. We’re already late.”

Eren stared at him for a few more seconds before relenting. “Fine.”

From his dejected tone, he could have kicked the kid’s fucking puppy. Levi held open the door for Mikasa and Armin, while Eren rushed back to his room to get who-knows-what.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Eren ran back out, stopping in front of Levi to shove something in his face. “At least put these on.”

Levi took the container out of his hands to actually look at it. It was a box of fake fangs, advertised for a vampire, the exact same thing that Hanji had tried to buy for him when they had gone to the store.

He sighed. “I’m not wearing that.”

Eren smiled, a challenge clear in his eyes. “Yes you are.”

 

Twenty minutes later, Levi was finally in his car—Eren following after in his own—with the most uncomfortable accessory in his mouth. Cats didn’t even have fangs that were that noticeable. Levi didn’t care about the accuracy of his outfit. He silently cursed everything in his life that led to this moment, while simultaneously trying to maneuver his way through traffic.

 There was a reason Hanji always came to hang around his apartment and it was because she had decided to buy a big ass house thirty minutes away in the middle of butt-fucking nowhere. It made no sense to him—especially considering that it was forty minutes away from the hospital—but nothing she did ever made an ounce of sense.

When he finally parked, he waited just long enough for Eren to pull in before he steeled himself and walked in. There was no way of knowing how many people Hanji would invite a certain year, and from the looks of it, she had decided she would have no less than the entire fucking hospital. Levi didn’t dwell of the relief he felt knowing that there was less of a chance he would run into Erwin.

He pushed his way through the crowd, trying to keep an eye out for Hanji, or anyone else he actually considered a friend. He finally made it to the back door, and back into fresh air. He had been there for less than two minutes and already felt like he needed a shower, but her backyard was large enough that he was no longer touching people every time he moved, so Levi let himself relax—slightly.

“You look as happy as ever,” Nanaba said from his right. Levi walked over towards her, marginally relieved to see a face he could actually put a name to.

“It’s not my fault Hanji throws shit parties.” That was partly a lie; she only threw shit Halloween parties because she went way too fucking far with everything involved. Her house was over decorated with—what he hoped was—fake webbing, spiders included. Every window had some sort of ghost decal, and he was pretty sure she had set up a complete fake graveyard in her backyard, but he wasn’t about to go over there and figure that one out. Nanaba’s outfit, at least seemed as lackluster as his; she was a mustard bottle.

“Don’t lie.” Nanaba gave him a quick push on his shoulder. “You even put in a little,” she held up her fingers to demonstrate how little, “bit more effort into your costume. A cat totally fits you.”

“And you have the personality of a mustard bottle,” Levi deadpanned.

“No matter how hard you try, you’re not going to insult me.”

Levi raised a questioning eyebrow at that. Nanaba wasn’t as sensitive as Hanji, but it was rare to see her in such a good mood.

“She’s just happy that she won the bet.” Mike said as he came towards them and handed Nanaba a drink. “I didn’t think Hanji could convince you to change your outfit.”

Levi wasn’t about to get into why the hell they were betting on anything to do with him, or the fact that they were wearing fucking mustard and ketchup matching outfit—honestly it was just because he couldn’t figure out which was worse. “I was tricked into it. Both the outfit, and the stupid ass fangs.”

“I think you’ve got a little bit of a lisp, going on there too. _Definitely_ suits you.” Both Nanaba and Mike started laughing as Levi glared at them.

“Hey!” Hanji yelled from the back door. Levi turned just in time to stop her from barreling into him. She had a large witches hat in her hands, which were adorned with nails long enough to be considered fucking disgusting. And as Levi looked at her face, he was distracted by the large fake moles she had plastered to her chin and nose.

“And how drunk are you exactly?” He wasn’t accusing her, but from the way her exuberance was reaching into the more-annoying-than-anything-else levels, she had to be more than just tipsy at that point.

“Not that drunk.” She smiled at him. “I’m just happy you showed up.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “When have I ever not shown up?”

“I just figured that you would see how many people were here, and turn right back around.”

“Oh come on,” Nanaba interjected. “Levi’s a dick but he’s not _that_ bad.”

“I was tempted. Tell me, how many people here do you actually know?”

“Not that many,” Hanji admitted with a shrug. “They’re mostly Moblit’s friends inside.” Her voice had lost some of her natural joy, but then she picked herself back up. “I also ran into Eren and Armin inside too. They are definitely strong contenders for the best outfit.”

“So we finally get to meet the mysterious roommate?” Mike questioned looking towards Levi.

“You haven’t noticed the teeth?” Nanaba pointed out. “Levi is putting in some serious effort.”

Before Levi could actually respond to Mike’s question, Hanji was closer to his face than he ever deemed comfortable, her hands holding his mouth open.

“Wow,” she said in one drawn out long breath. She let him go and clapped her hands. “You liar! You went back and bought them, didn’t you?”

Levi blinked, once, twice, and a third time for good measure before he furiously wiped at his mouth. Mike and Nanaba were beside themselves with laughter.

“Don’t you ever do that again. Fuck.” He needed mouth wash and a fucking knife. One to clean the filth Hanji probably just put into his mouth, and the latter to stab the woman and put her out of her drunken misery. She would probably thank him even, for killing her on her favorite holiday.

“Sorry, sorry.” Hanji would have sounded sincere if it weren’t for the fact that she was doing a piss poor job of holding down her giggles. “Never happening again.”

“Now I’m going to grab something to drown out the taste of dirt. Please tell me you have something besides alcohol.”

“Pshh, of course I do.” Hanji pointed in the general direction of her house. “There’s bottle water in the fridge, and some sprite too, if you want that instead.”

Instead of responding, Levi just walked off, back into the crowded house. He spotted Moblit talking to what he assumed to be his friends, and  Eren talking to someone who looked closer to his age, while Mikasa stood next to him—she was talking too and Levi was mildly surprised that he couldn’t recall ever hearing her voice—but he didn’t bother to stop and talk to them. He quickly grabbed a water out of the fridge, and after a second of thought, decide to go to the front porch instead of the back.

It wasn’t that Hanji had actually made him angry—just somewhat irritated, as usual—but he could only handle a crowd for a short amount of time. He wasn’t social and never made the attempt to be, even in his prime, and he was far past that. He had no clue how Hanji still kept up.

Levi leaned on the railing, careful not to get too close to the jack-o-lantern lighted up next to him. He could feel a headache coming on, but he had to stay for at least another hour unless he wanted to hear Hanji complaining about it in the morning. It wasn’t that he didn’t like their company, but the loud music was definitely getting to him.

With a sigh, he picked himself up, and turned to go back inside, but he stopped before he began walking, staring up at the last person he wanted to see at that moment.

“Hello, Levi,” Erwin said with the same perfect fucking smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh, look a cliffhanger! Next chapter is part two of the Halloween party, and its gonna be intense :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween party part 2: That almost went well and then everything went to shit.

To say he felt nothing, would be a huge fucking lie, but, as he looked up at Erwin, Levi didn’t feel nearly as much as he thought he would. He could continue walking back inside or he could go back to leaning on the railing, because he knew from the look on Erwin’s stupid face that he had been looking for Levi, and he wasn’t about to let him be.

Erwin made the decision for him though, and moved around Levi to lean his back on the rails. The fact that the man was dressed as a pirate—eye patch and all—only made it slightly easier for Levi to not take him seriously.

 “I was surprised that you weren’t the first one to arrive. Hanji was complaining about it earlier.”

Levi crossed his arms, his fingers tapping. “She called, but she was also the one who made me babysit, so it’s her fault I was late.” Erwin knew Levi liked being on time. Levi used to rush him out of the apartment when Erwin took too long trying to make his hair perfectly parted—and that was the exact opposite of what Levi wanted to think about.

“Ah,” Erwin laughed. “She told me about the new roommate she forced on you. I hope he meets your cleaning standards.”

After a second of awkward silence, Levi answered. “He’s not that bad.” It was a lie. Eren cleaned worse than a small child. Levi was pretty sure Eren had been spoiled and never cleaned a day in his life, but Erwin didn’t have to know that. As innocent as Erwin’s words were supposed to be, he couldn’t help the instant defensiveness, even if it was over Eren.

“Hanji seems to think you’ve scared the poor kid, and that doesn’t really surprise me.”

“Hanji needs to mind her own business,” Levi grumbled. He didn’t care how harsh it came out, he really fucking didn’t. Levi didn’t want to cause a scene. He didn’t want to start some sort of fight, but he was tense, and it was coming out in every word he said. He couldn’t stop himself.

“Speaking of Hanji,” Erwin continued as if he hadn’t heard the venom in Levi’s voice, “have you noticed that she’s been down recently? When I asked her about it, she just deflected.”

Levi blinked, and felt the familiar inkling of guilt join in with all of the other feeling swirling around in his stomach. He was being stupid and aggressive and everything that annoyed himself, while Erwin attempted to talk to him like he was a sane person. They were both worried about Hanji. Erwin annoyed him, but mostly Levi knew he was acting like a fucking child for no reason and he hated himself for it.

He cleared his throat. “She hasn’t told me anything either. I just let her be.”

“Really?” Erwin raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t really seem to be questioning Levi’s answer. He thought for a moment, then spoke slowly, “This is just a hunch, but I think she and Moblit are having problems. She goes out and drinks to make herself feel better, but that’s just adding to the problem.”

Levi narrowed his eyes, thinking back to her behavior. Even now, he could admit that Erwin was definitely smarter than him when it came to personal matters, because—fuck it all—he was making sense. Levi _had_ noticed that Hanji was going out and getting shitfaced more often, and he ignored her for it, which in retrospect probably had made her feel worse. She didn’t talk about Moblit as often as she used to and he was pretty sure the last time she had mentioned the man, she had complained about him. But—

“She told me she was slowing down,” Levi interjected. “She hasn’t been going out nearly as much recently.”

Erwin shrugged. “I noticed that too, but her mood hasn’t gotten much better. It’s gotten worse actually.”

“And what the hell do you want me to do? I tried to ask, but she won’t tell me shit and I’m not going to push her.”

Erwin held up his hands to placate Levi. “I didn’t necessarily want you to do anything. I just think she needs someone to force her to talk, even if she doesn’t want to.”

“Why don’t you do it yourself?” Levi was honestly curious. “I just told you I tried.”

“I would,” Erwin said pursing his lips, “but she’s still angry with me.”

“Why?” Levi asked and then instantly regretted it. He could formulate a perfectly good reason—at least a good reason to Hanji—for why she was angry with him. Levi mentally cursed at himself for letting his guard down and letting his mouth run away from him. Talking to Erwin was nice, satiating whatever _feelings_ he still had, but it didn’t mean he wanted to, and it definitely didn’t mean he liked it.

“She doesn’t like the idea of me dating Nile.” Erwin laughed as if he didn’t see the way Levi tensed up. “Well, to be honest, she’s never even liked the man, so I don’t know what I was expecting.”

Levi opened his mouth to say anything, to save himself from the embarrassment of Erwin seeing right through him, but nothing was coming out. He shouldn’t be so surprised, and Levi’s stomach definitely had no right dropping down into his bowels, leaving him lightheaded.

He jumped when Hanji’s front door opened and turned quickly towards it, thankful for any distraction. Eren had already stepped out and closed the door before he noticed the two men staring at him.

His eyes darted between them. “I’m sorry,” he began. He stared at Levi, but the man had no clue as to what expression his face held at that moment. He didn’t have much control of anything, and by the way Eren’s eyebrows furrowed and the polite smile dropped off his face, Levi knew he didn’t look good.

“Oh, don’t worry. You weren’t interrupting anything.” Levi took the moment that Erwin wasn’t examining him to try to put himself back together.

Eren didn’t take the hint Erwin was sending him, and instead took the few steps towards them. “Actually, I was looking for Levi,” Eren said smiling.

Erwin actually seemed taken aback for a second before his calculating eyes looked over Eren afresh.

“What do you want?” Thank the fuck to whatever divine being blessed him with a steady voice, even if it was gruffer than usual.

Eren’s eyes flickered back over to Levi. He let out a small laugh and scratched the back of his head. “I’m really sorry to be such a bother, but I’m not feeling all that well, so I was wondering if we could go home a little early?”

It was a really fucking good thing that Levi seemed to have lost all semblance of understanding because that was the only thing that kept the confusion off his face. They both knew that Eren had driven himself there, with no intention of getting a ride from Levi.

“So you must be the roommate I’ve heard about?” Erwin extended his hand with the same impeccable smile as always.

“Yeah.” Eren’s smile was forced. “Only good things I hope?” He took Erwin’s hand and Levi felt like he was having some sort of fucking out of body experience.

“I’ll take you home,” Levi interjected. Both their eyes were back on him but he had already turned his back to them. “Give me a second.”

Levi headed back inside without another word, still more than a little lost. The house was emptier than earlier, and after a quick look around, he didn’t spot Hanji. He headed to the backyard and found where everyone had gone.

A stage—which he hadn’t really noticed before—was set up and a few people were standing on it, while the crowd milled about. He ignore the fact that the hospital director seemed to be the one hosting the costume contest and continued to look for Hanji.

He needed to tell her he was leaving. It was the singular goal that kept him focused. He had to ignore the fact that he still couldn’t get his heart to stop its palpitations, or the fact that he felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him.

Erwin was dating Nile, and he had no clue how he felt about that.

“Are you okay, Levi?” Nanaba said from behind him, causing him to jump. People really fucking needed to stop surprising him.

He took a second to answer, making sure that he could still speak normally. “Yeah. I’m fine.” Lie. “Where’s Hanji?”

“Erm,” Nanaba swished the drink around in her hand, frowning. “I guess you weren’t around for that?”

That caught Levi’s attention. “What happened?”

“After you went back in, Hanji and a few people got into a drinking contest. She sort of,” Nanaba winced, “went overboard, and Moblit took her upstairs to lay down.”

Had it been a normal situation, Levi would have asked more, and then marched upstairs to make sure that Hanji was really fine, and if she was, he would have given her a piece of his mind. But it wasn’t a normal situation and Levi knew he _couldn’t_ handle Hanji’s problems on top of his own. He was fucking scum.

“If she comes back down, tell her I’m leaving.” He turned to go.

“Wait,” Nanaba called after him. He looked back at her. “Are you sure you’re fine? You look a little out of it.”

She was worried, he knew that, but he couldn’t answer her. He forced a small smile that he knew looked completely fabricated, and continued back to the front. He had been gone for only ten minutes, but when he came back Erwin was nowhere to be seen, and Eren was staring out into the yard, his expression unreadable. Levi’s audible sigh of relief caused Eren to look over.

“Ready to go?”

Levi nodded and led Eren to his car. For once, Eren held his tongue, alternating between playing with his phone and staring at Levi. It was a long ride, but Levi had put himself on autopilot the moment he left the party. He just needed to get home. There was no need to dwell on anything. He just needed to go home and go to sleep and then wake up for his morning shift and he was perfectly fine. Erwin was dating Nile, but that was alright. He didn’t care. There was no reason for him to give a shit.

“Apparently Armin won the costume contest,” Eren said casually, “I told you the extra effort was worth it.”

When Levi didn’t immediately respond, Eren continued. “It’s really funny when he gets tipsy. You should have seen him. He told me that when he first started shadowing you told him that no one was going to shit on him.” Eren laughed to himself. “I mean, he gets pretty shy when he talks to people he doesn’t know so I can understand you telling him to calm down, but I’ve never heard anyone with such a colorful vocabulary like yours. It’s amazing how you can relate basically anything back to shit.”

Levi could feel the hold he had on the steering wheel loosening as the tension slowly seeped out of his body, but he still didn’t say anything.

“Anyway, when Armin gets tipsy he gets really talkative, like, I don’t know, Hanji level talkative. He was talking with some guy, and I assumed he worked at the hospital because they really got into it about some sort of treatment, but I couldn’t really follow all the technicalities; I was only in premed for a year. Anyway, Armin basically told the guy he was a complete idiot, like that’s literally what he said.”

“Won’t—” Levi began and then cleared his throat. “Won’t your friends get angry that you left without saying anything?”

“I told them,” Eren said shaking his phone. “Mikasa was driving anyway, and this makes things easier. They’ll just head straight back home, instead of stopping by the apartment to pick up her car.”

Eren continued to stare, fidgeting slightly in his seat. It was obvious he wanted to ask about the odd scene he had walked into, but he didn’t. Levi sighed and rolled his shoulders, bracing himself.

“Thanks,” Levi said. After a moment, he added, “Thanks for helping me out back there.”

“I—” Eren furrowed his brows. “Don’t—” He was tripping over his own tongue, unable to get anything out. “Who—”

“That was my ex.” Levi didn’t know what made him give out that piece of information. Obviously he wasn’t in control of anything that day.

“Oh,” was Eren’s eloquent response. “Do you want to talk about it…?”

Levi let out a short bark of laughter. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“You ask me that a lot.” Eren grinned, his eyes lighting up.

Levi stopped his staring, looking back at the road. He stopped himself from thinking too much—not that it was that hard—before he opened his mouth again. “He told me he was dating again.”

“Oh.”

“We broke up a few months ago.”

“Okay.”

“We were together for six years.”

“Wow.”

“The guy he’s dating is a total prick, and the guy he dated before me.”

“Oh.”

Levi took a carnal pleasure in hitting his breaks and watching as Eren jerked forward. “You have the shittiest responses, you fucker.”

“What exactly do you want me to say? Jeez.”

“Something that shows that you have a fucking brain.”

“I’m sorry for your loss?” Eren had a grin on his face that said he definitely knew what he was doing.

“Fuck off, kid.” Levi rolled his eyes. “No wonder you couldn’t handle being in premed.”

Eren looked amazed. “You were actually listening?”

“You didn’t give me much of a choice, dimwit.”

“Just so you know, I aced all my classes. I even beat Armin’s ass in chemistry _twice._ ”

Levi glanced over at Eren. “That’s bullshit.”

“No, really! You can ask him and everything. I made a 98 in chem 1 and a 96 in chem 2. Both times he was two points below me.”

“What made you switch?”

Eren shrugged. “I didn’t like it. I was good at it, but I had to study twenty four seven. I was constantly worried about everything, but it wasn’t even something I wanted to do.”

Levi wasn’t really curious about Eren’s life, but the tilt of the kid’s voice was nice to listen to, and it was keeping his mind away from bullshit. Levi parked his car and rested his head on the steering wheel. Eren kept talking about nothing at all, but when he suddenly cut off, Levi knew the idiot had finally noticed that they weren’t moving anymore.

“Thanks,” he said again as he sat up and look at Eren. “You’re a good kid, Eren.”

Eren stilled, his green eyes darkening before he looked back at Levi. “I’m not a kid.”

It wasn’t said in the usual petulant way. Eren was serious, Levi could see it in the way he was glaring slightly, the slight crease between his brows, and the way his mouth was set in that stubborn way.

“Okay,” Levi said softly.

“Fine,” Eren said with the same tone of voice, his eyes darting down to Levi’s lips. Before Levi could react though, Eren had jumped back and was already halfway out of the car. Levi followed after a little slower, staring down Eren’s back as realization slowly bloomed in his mind.

Oh, fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this tired me out, like seriously, but this is the end of the halloween party. Next coming up is the aftermath, which unfortunately isn't going to be pretty.  
> Also, there's almost a hundred percent chance that there wont be an update next weekend. I have two tests that weekend, an exam and paper due on that monday, another exam on that tuesday, and two books that i have to finish by then, sooo we'll see how it goes.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath may actually be worse than the party, or maybe not.

Levi woke up with a jerk to the blaring of his alarm. He groped around his bed stand for his phone and immediately shut it off. He didn’t get up though, trying to keep the peace of mind sleep had given him. Just a few more seconds. Levi sighed and rolled out of bed.

He felt like complete utter shit, because a complete utter little shit had a fucking crush on him, Hanji was a fucking idiot, and then there was fucking Erwin. He didn’t want to care. He shouldn’t care. There was no reason for fucking jealousy to burn a hole in his stomach. Actually, strike that; he wasn’t jealous or angry. I was some sort of melting pot of feelings that he couldn’t distinguish and _that_ was pissing him off.

But there it was and all Levi could do was roll with the shit life was dumping on him. Grabbing his work clothes, Levi opened his door fully prepared to head straight for the bathroom, but his feet came to a stop after only one step out his room.

Of fucking course Eren had to be there. He was standing in the kitchen shoving cereal into his mouth, with a stupid beanie over his bird’s nest hair and the same skinny jeans t-shirt combo he wore nearly every day. Fuck, Levi shouldn’t notice those details.

“Good morning.” Eren smiled, his mouth still full of cereal. “You’re up later than usual.”

Levi grunted in response before quickly shutting himself off into his bathroom. He began his automatic routine, taking his clothes off and turning the shower on, while he let his mind wander. It was like whatever rose colored shades Levi was wearing had been slapped off his face. Eren was startling, painfully obvious, and in retrospect he should have noticed that Eren’s stares were tinged with more than just a little admiration—and how the fuck he hadn’t noticed that, he didn’t know. They had just established a sort of friendship slash a you’re not as annoying as I originally thought comradery. Eren would talk and Levi wouldn’t really listen and they could co-exist without any problems. And maybe Levi was throwing things out of proportion, but he was almost certain that Eren had wanted to kiss him last night.

It was fucking gross and annoying and Levi had no clue how to deal with it. This was Hanji’s area of expertise. Or Mike. Or Nanaba. Or Erwin. Or someone who wasn’t Levi basically.

Levi groaned, letting his head rest on the wall and the shower’s spray roll down his face. Erwin was fucking dating Nile, and that was far grosser than Eren’s misplaced crush. Nile Dok was slimy, gross, pandering, disgusting excuse for a man and basically any negative describer he could think of. Levi had never made his dislike of the snake-man subtle and, for the most part, he had thought Erwin agreed with him.

But now Levi was learning that he didn’t know nearly as much about Erwin as he thought he did. And fuck it if it was being weak, but Levi really needed someone to talk to. Someone that wasn’t his friends that had obviously hidden that little fact from him. Okay, maybe he was a little angry, but he had the right to be over that.

Some of the tension left his shoulders as he heard the front door open and close, and he breathed a small sigh of relief. That was one less thing to worry about. Even if he and Eren had developed a sort of shaky friendship, Levi could at least recognize that he needed to back off. Talk to the kid a little less and make sure he wasn’t sending any wrong vibes. Cut the stupid crush down while Eren still seemed hesitant and not fully sure of himself. If only Levi knew what the hell he had done to encourage anyone to develop a fucking crush on him.

With another sigh, Levi continued his morning routine, still not entirely satisfied with his plan of action. After his shower—which ran long enough to make him more than a little late—Levi got dressed and briskly walked out the apartment.

Once he got down to his car, he checked his phone and noticed he had a message from Hanji.

_Reschedule autopsy. Cant come in sorry_

And that probably meant she had woken up and puked out the poison she had drunk all night. Levi felt the scowl on his face deepen as he responded.

_Fine_

And after a moment’s deliberation,

_Don’t die idiot_

Levi normally wouldn’t have expected her to come in, but she had insisted that she would be fine to do an autopsy before the party, but it looks like whatever self-control she had went down the toilet with her party. Hanji was another problem on his growing list, and even if she was a shitty friend that basically lied to him—there was no fucking way he was letting that go—she was still one of his few friends.

He needed to take the day off to reorganize his life, but instead he was driving to the morgue to stare at dead people all day. Maybe he could pour out his life story to a cadaver. Or do something actually sane. What the fuck ever.

By the time he actually made it to the morgue, Levi had calmed down considerably, mostly because he had stopped by Starbucks for a cup of coffee. And maybe he just wasn’t a morning person at all, even if it was closer to noon.

“Good morning, sir,” Petra said cheerfully from her desk as he walked in. “Oluo had two bodies come in, and so far, I’ve had three.” She stood and handed him the stack of reports.

“Thank you,” he replied, momentarily distracted by her protruding stomach. He honestly couldn’t remember how far along she was, but it was just another reminder of the growing pile of applications on his desk that he needed to read through. Just another fucking problem to deal with.

“How’s Oluo’s job search going?” Levi asked, lingering just a second longer.

“Good, actually,” Petra beamed. Well, fuck. “He has an interview next week for the funeral home on Dale Street.”

Shit. He really needed to read through those applications. He nodded and proceeded to his office. He placed the papers Petra had handed him on his desk and stared at the two piles before sitting down with a heavy sigh.

 

He had been there for four hours, and although he had finished with the papers Petra had given him—all they needed were his signatures and a few quick calls to funeral homes—but Levi had yet to touch the pile of resumes. He wasn’t avoiding it; the morgue just needed dusting. And then he remembered to e-mail the director about the autopsy being cancelled. And then the phone had rang, alerting him to a body needing to be brought down. And then Petra had said she was thirsty, and he couldn’t let a pregnant woman walk all the way to the cafeteria for a cup of water.

He set the cup at her desk and retreated back to his office, but continued to stare at the pile of papers. Maybe he _was_ avoiding it, because—as he was beginning to learn about himself—he really didn’t like any form of change at all whatsoever.  Another thing to add to his list of character flaws.

The morgue phone rang again and Levi moved a little faster than appropriate. He really should be happy that someone just died, but at least it gave him something to do. He waved off Petra as she was about to stand and met the nurse in the hall alone. After signing off the papers, he led the body—and old man who, from the report he had glanced over, had a penchant for drinking—into the morgue.

Cleanse the body. Move the body. Secure the room. Clean up. It was the routine Levi was used to, and it gave him time to attempt the calm the nerves that had been at a high since the night before. Routine was good, easy, and simple, but things were changing around him and dammit, he sounded like an old man.

Levi returned to his office and grabbed the stack of papers on his desk.

“I’m taking the rest of the day off,” he announced to Petra, “If anything happens call me.”

Petra gave him a curious look but only replied with a, “Have a good day.”

As he was walking to his car, Levi made sure to send Hanji a text,

_We’re going out for dinner tomorrow at 8. We need to talk._

That was one problem taken care of.

 

He made his way home, took a shower, made a cup of tea, and spread out the resumes on top of the coffee table. He picked one by random and started reading through them slowly. He had fully immersed himself in the world of gross misspelling, obviously fake references, and desperate attempts at skill writing—honestly, Levi was starting to remember why he strived to give his employees anything, because this process was hell and there was no way he was going to find anyone as good as them—but that didn’t stop him from noticing the front door opening.

His eyes flickered up to watch as Eren dropped his bag by the couch and walked to his room. Eren was being normal, and Levi didn’t know why he expected anything to change. Eren came back out and laid on the couch across from him.

“Good afternoon,” Eren greeted as he dug a book from out of his bag.

Levi didn’t respond, and continued to read another shitty resume. Eren seemed to catch his not-so-subtle hint and shut his mouth. He began reading his book, and the way he mouthed what he was reading, along with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion was actually a pretty funny sight to see.

Levi returned to his work, only to hear Eren murmur, “What the fuck,” to himself. And then again. Levi rolled his eyes, still trying—mostly in vain—to read.

Eren threw back his head and groaned, letting the book drop to the floor. And Levi really couldn’t help the quiet laugh that escaped him

Eren blinked at him. “Are you laughing at me?” When Levi didn’t immediately respond, Eren glared at him. “You’re totally laughing at me.”

“It sounds like you’re having a mental breakdown over there. Are you going to survive?”

“You’re such a fucking dick,” Eren mumbled. “This poem is hard.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “You’re almost as dramatic as Hanji.”

“No, look,” Eren said as he picked up the book and flipped through a few pages. “Read this and tell me it isn’t the stupidest piece of shit you’ve ever read.” He shoved the book in Levi’s face.

> _"London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down_
> 
> _Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina_
> 
> _Quando fiam ceu chelidon—O swallow swallow_
> 
> _Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie_
> 
> _These fragments I have shored against my ruins_
> 
> _Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe._
> 
> _Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata._
> 
> _Shantih    shantih    shantih"_

Okay, maybe the kid had a point because what the fuck. “Half of this isn’t in English.”

“At least that part has translations. Everything else just doesn’t make any sense. My teacher called this the fucking epitome of modern literature, and this just proves that modern literature is crap. Honestly Eliot had to be on some serious drugs because the whole poem is like that and it’s like ten pages long.”

“You’re the one who wanted to be a literature student,” Levi deadpanned as he got up.

“But I didn’t sign up for _this_.” Eren groaned again, flopping around dramatically on the couch.

“You sound like a fucking five year old.” Levi set the kettle on the stove, and after a moment of consideration, pulled out two mugs. “And you signed up to that when you decided to take the class.”

“Well, I like World War stuff, not whatever this is classified under. I have to write a response to this, and I’m pretty sure it’ll just be ‘what the fuck’ written a hundred times. Fuck this.” Levi could here Eren get up from his position in the kitchen, and then return.

The kettle went off and Levi took out peppermint tea for the both of them. After letting it brew, he set a cup by Eren and sat back down with his papers.

It took Eren a second to look up from his laptop—which Levi assumed he grabbed from his room. “You made me tea?”

“No I made myself two cups and set one next to you on accident.”

Eren flashed him a smile. “Thanks,” and then a murmured, “jerk.”

“I heard that,” Levi said without any real malice. They continued to work in a comfortable silence, and maybe Eren wasn’t that bad. Maybe Levi really was reading too much into Eren’s behavior.

Levi sighed to himself. He was just going to drop this subject in his mind. There was no reason to dwell on whatever Eren _felt_ , because obviously the kid didn’t seem too keen on disturbing their normal peace either.

That was one problem off his plate, and hopefully he could get through the rest of the resumes and deal with two problems in one night. He could only hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem is The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot and this is very much my own experience with it. Go read it and tell me if you get it because I'm pretty sure I could study all my life and still not understand it.  
> Thanks for all the kind comments about my midterms. With the last chapter I also reached 3k hits and 200 kudos and 30k words which is really fucking amazing. I would love to do something special to thank y'all, but unfortunately college is gonna keep me busy for a while, especially since I just started the process of officially declaring a double major (which is more complicated than you think it would be). So expect something special as a thanks in the near future :)  
> Second, sorry that this chapter is coming a lot later than expected, but after this break chapters will (and I use will very loosely) return to being weekly.  
> And finally, happy (day after) Halloween and hope you enjoy!!


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji has a way of forcing Levi to do things he really doesn't want to do even if it's for the best.

Hanji was fucking late. Hanji was late more often than not normally, but she had no reason to keep Levi waiting. She had texted him that morning to say she was sick again and if Levi knew anything about Hanji it was that she truly loved her job and would only call out if she was honestly truly sick, which had never happened two days in a row. He was worried and maybe that worry turned quickly into irritation as the clock neared nine and she still hadn’t shown up.

Levi had sent a text asking her where the hell she was and ten minutes later he still hadn’t gotten a reply. His hands tapped on the table, debating whether to leave—the waitress had started giving him pitying looks and he didn’t feel like dealing with that—or to stay and hope that Hanji wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere.

Just as he made to pull out his wallet and pay for his drink, he saw Hanji finally walk in the front. Levi rolled his eyes as she approached him. Maybe he felt a little bit of relief too, but mostly exasperation.

“Sorry, sorry,” Hanji said as she sat, “I know I’m late.”

“You look like shit.” The words had slipped out before he had time to even think about it.

Hanji smile wavered slightly. “I was sick. That’s usually what happens.”

“Don’t bullshit me. You’ve come in with a fever before because you never reschedule autopsies.” Levi glared. “You hate the paperwork more than I do.”

Hanji returned his glare. “I’ll be there on Monday, so no need to worry.”

They sat in a silent stalemate. Hanji knew something was wrong, and Levi was waiting for her to break. He suddenly remembered why he didn’t confront people, most of all Hanji: she got uncharacteristically silent and he couldn’t be bothered to say anything either. This had happened when she had broken up with her stoner boyfriend in college—Levi could never be bothered to remember his stupid name—and in the weeks before she knew she had been accepted in Sina Medical School.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He was in no way equipped to deal with this.

Hanji just glared harder.

“Fuck, I didn’t mean it like that,” Levi backtracked. “Look, you’ve just been acting weird. More than normal.”

“Did Erwin put you up to this?”

Oh, Fuck. “That doesn’t matter.”

“Is that why you left the party early?”

“It’s amazing what you notice when you’re shitfaced all the damn time.” Okay, he definitely didn’t mean to get that defensive.

“Fuck off,” Hanji was legitimately pissed, and so was Levi.

He took a deep breath. “Hanji,” he tried in a much calmer voice, “I told you before that you can talk to me, shit face. You’re just making yourself feel more like shit, so stop being such a fucking dick.”

Another beat of silence and Hanji burst out laughing. Levi let her do whatever the fuck she wanted because there was no way in hell he was following along with her anymore. How the fuck was she able to pull off so many mood swings, he honestly didn’t know. The waitress—who had left as soon as she got their order and most likely heard most of their argument—kept throwing them confused glances, and Levi was just as confused as her.

“You’re the shittiest,” Hanji got out between her laughs, “You’re the fucking worst at comforting people. Why did Erwin ask you of all people?”

“Like I fucking know. Apparently _he_ thinks I’m good at it.”

“He’s an idiot.”

Levi shrugged. “I don’t disagree.”

Hanji laid her head on the table and sighed. She opened her mouth as if to say something several times, but ended up sighing again. She still didn’t say anything when their food was brought out. Levi waited patiently, but when the check was brought out, he had reached his breaking point.

“Are you going to say anything?”

“Hmmm,” Hanji gave him a lopsided smile. “You’re paying right? I don’t have my wallet with me.”

Levi shot her a look, but picked up the check anyway. Of fucking course she didn’t have her wallet. Levi thought back and realized that when she had walked in, she didn’t have her purse at all. “What _did_ you bring with you?” He asked cautiously.

“My pretty face?” She blinked obnoxiously at him. Well, that explains why she didn’t answer his text.

“How the fuck did you get here?”

“I took a cab.”

Levi groaned and placed his head in his hands. “You’re not leaving me alone are you?”

“Nope,” Hanji said happily as she stood, and pulled Levi with her. “You’re the one who called me out. Besides, I don’t really feel like going home right now anyway.”

“You haven’t said anything though,” Levi mumbled to himself, but let her lead him along. She seemed perfectly content to bum a ride with him, even asking him to stop at some shady shopping mall. And then asked for his credit card. And then threw some bags in his back seat and told him to drive.

By the time they actually made it to his apartment, she still hadn’t said much of anything and his irritation was quickly mounting. At least Eren was working that night—or studying; Levi wasn’t quite sure what exactly the brat had told him—so he didn’t have to deal with two idiots who liked to talk in circles. He needed a cup of tea, but as he made his way towards the kitchen, Hanji stopped him.

“I’ll make you something, just sit down.” She held up her bags and he could hear the glass clinking together.

“What the hell did you buy?” Levi grumbled but still did as she directed.

“You’ll see.”

From where he was sitting Levi couldn’t peek into the kitchen so he just sat back and waited for whatever hell Hanji was going to present him.

She didn’t disappoint as she came in to place two full shot glasses on the table. Levi didn’t know what to say as she went back to the kitchen and brought out two more, and two more, and two more. Every set had a different drink in them, and he had no clue what to think about that. She sat down across from him, with a large grin.

“How much money did you spend on all this?” His voice came out strained because he was stuck somewhere between sheer shock and deep-seated annoyance.

“I’ll pay you back.” Levi raised an eyebrow and she relented. “I didn’t know what you liked; I had to get a variety! I spent less than a hundred, okay?”

“So you’re just using me as an excuse—again—to get shitfaced?”

“No, no, no, just listen,” Hanji said waving her hands, “I take a shot and tell you something and you take a shot and tell me something. We’ll trade our worries but no more awkward comforting or misplaced advice. Just trading stories.”

“I don’t drink Hanji,” he reminded her, “And drinking is part of your problem. Why do you want me to enable you?” Her offer sounded tempting but there was a hundred and one ways for it to go horribly wrong.

“I know.” Her face turned serious in an instant. “That’s asking a lot of you, but this will be the last time and I’ll swear off of alcohol.” She blew out a breath. “It’s kinda scary, you know? I started out just trying to have fun and then it became every weekend, every few days, and I don’t want to get any worse, so after this I’ll completely stop. Promise.”

“Fine, shit face. You win.”

Instead of her usual jump for joy when he agreed with her stupid plans, she just smiled and took the first glass of clear liquid. She wiped her mouth and sighed for the umpteenth time that night. “I’m not sure if I want kids, but Moblit wants kids.”

“That’s what you’re fighting about?”

“Among other things,” Hanji slid down on the floor and rested her head on the table. “I just started as a pathologist and he wants to have kids, but I don’t want to have to take time off, or quit outright. But I can feel my biological clock ticking away, and I don’t want to make the wrong choice. Moblit wouldn’t pressure me, but I can’t help but feel like I’m letting him down.” She reached for the second shot but stopped herself and looked at Levi expectantly. “Your turn.”

Levi scrunched his face in disgust, but took the shot in one gulp. He wasn’t exactly opposed to the idea of drinking, but everything about it was unpleasant to him, from the burning sensation in his throat to the memories associated with it. He wanted to spit it out. “I fucking hate white rum.”

“I just got a mix of everything and figured we would settle on whatever you liked the most.” Hanji shrugged. “Sorry.”

“Tequila.” Levi said shortly. He thought for a moment of what to share with her. “Why didn’t you tell me Erwin was dating Nile?”

“He told you?”

“Yeah, and I froze from the sheer shock of it.”

“I didn’t want to put too much pressure on you. I knew you wouldn’t exactly take it well.”

“I—” Levi wanted to get angry, but deflated quickly. “Whatever; it’s your turn.”

“Hmm, let’s see,” Hanji lifted her head long enough to take her next shot. “Sometimes I get scared because Moblit’s so much younger than I am.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “He’s not that young. Older than—” He stopped that though before it can fully form because what the fuck. Okay, moving on.

“He just turned twenty six,” Hanji said and thank fuck she hadn’t caught that last part. “That’s a six year difference. All his friends are his age and I don’t think any of them like me.”

“I don’t even like you,” Levi mumbled. “And he obviously chose you, so fuck them.”

Hanji smiled into her arm. “Okay, your turn.”

Levi picked up the next glass and grimaced again. “Who the fuck likes vodka; it’s basically rubbing alcohol.”

“Are you going to complain about everything you drink?”

“Yes,” Levi deadpanned. He paused. “The shitty brat you made my roommate has a crush on me.”

Hanji lifted her head. “Are you sure?” She asked excitedly.

“As sure as I can be. Eren’s not exactly the most subtle idiot around.”

“Yes!” Hanji punched the air. “Armin totally didn’t believe me when I told him that. If you’ve noticed, then it’s definitely true and he owes me a twenty.”

“There’s so much wrong with that I don’t even know where to start.”

“Wait, so how do you feel about that?”

“About his crush? He’s stupid as hell Hanji, end of story.”

“Oh, come on. I think he’s cute.”

“Of course you do.” Levi pinched the bridge of his nose. “You both have basically the same personality, except you like dead bodies and he like books.”

“Obviously you’ve thought a lot about him.”

“Hanji,” Levi growled. “It’s your turn.”

“Fine, fine, I’m dropping it.”

They continued for six more shots, turning to more mundane complaints—Levi with his resumes he still hadn’t finished reading through, and Hanji with how much she hated how understaffed the hospital was—until they ran out of things to say.

Levi’s eyes were heavy and his head was spinning. Another reason he didn’t like to drink. He piled up the empty shot glasses, but as he attempted to stand, a wave of dizziness caused him to stumble. Yeah, he was definitely drunk.  
“And I was beginning to think you had a liver of steel,” Hanji slurred, watching him but not moving to help.

“Fuck off.” He made it into the kitchen and dumped the glasses in the sink. He leaned heavily on the counter and had the sudden urge to lay down there and fall asleep.

“Don’t fall asleep on me, Levi,” Hanji said and when the hell had she gotten so close to him. “I didn’t realize you were a sleepy drunk; how boring. I thought you would be a happy drunk.”

“Leave me alone,” He said as he pushed her away. He grabbed the bottle of tequila from the coffee table and set it on the kitchen counter “Clean first, then sleep.”

Hanji burst out laughing. “Of course you want to clean.”

“Shit face.” Maybe sleeping was the better option. He could clean later. “Pull out the couch.” He directed, pointing in the general direction.

“Awww,” Hanji whined. “Let me sleep with you.”

“No.”

“Please?”

He glared at her, but didn’t look nearly as threatening as normal.

“Just this once?”

“Fine,” he relented, too tired and drunk to argue with her. He wasn’t quite sure how exactly he made it, but eventually he got into bed in his pajamas, with Hanji laying on the other side. He closed his eyes instantly but felt like he was forgetting something important.

“Hanji,” he said with his eyes still closed, “If you get anywhere near me, you’re getting kicked out. I don’t want any of your filth on me.”

That started another round of laughter from her. “Don’t worry captain clean.” She continued to giggle to herself, but Levi just ignored her and finally went the fuck to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a hard time on how to approach this subject without it being too not serious???? I ended up rewriting this chapter around three times and I'm still not quite happy with it but this is as good as it gets. Also Eren didn't show up this chapter because he seemed a little out of place, so enjoy more of my brotp.  
> Anyway, as a added note, I do add on to the tags periodically and seeing as most of this story is unplanned until I actually sit down and write it (another reason why it takes me so long) just be sure to glance at them because they are subject to change.  
> 


	16. Chapter 16

The first thing Levi did when he woke was to silently pad to the bathroom for some aspirin and then the kitchen for a glass of water. The mostly full bottles—everything but the tequila, which was on the table and mostly empty—were still lined up on the counter, and the shot glasses still unceremoniously piled in the sink. The coffee table wasn’t in the right stop, too close to the couch, and if he walked closer he could probably see spots where he could vaguely remember tequila sloshing out of his glass.

It was horribly disgusting. Levi could feel himself getting irritated, and the ache in his head was only fueling the fire. He should have severe alcohol poisoning, going from nothing in years to six or seven shots in one night. He pushed down the slight regret threatening to bubble up, and walked back to his room. He didn’t need to sit there and dwell on whatever the hell he was feeling at that moment.

Hanji was snoring lightly, her mouth open, and drooling on his pillow. He ignored her—which took more effort than he was willing to admit—and grabbed some clothes from his dresser. He didn’t bother trying to be quiet because he knew from experience that Hanji was a heavy sleeper. Honestly he would probably have to push her out his bed to get her to leave.

Levi desperately needed a long shower before he tried to do anything else, so he made his way to the bathroom and turned the shower on to the highest setting. Levi threw his pajamas on the floor, not really caring where exactly they landed. He shivered as he stepped into the still too cold spray of water, but didn’t let that bother him. He felt disgusting.

He needed to scrub every ounce of last night off of him even if it left his skin red and raw. Levi let himself fall into the normal routine, trying desperately to stop thinking about the sticky itch that was crawling along his skin. By the time he stepped out the shower the water was lukewarm, bordering on cold.

He still didn’t feel completely clean, but there was no point in hiding around in the bathroom all morning. Especially when his head was killing him, and he desperately needed something to drink again. After brushing his teeth and pulling on sweat pants and a t-shirt, Levi opened to door only to be assaulted with the strong smell of bacon.

And there was the nausea.

“What the fuck?” He asked while he tried desperately to ignore the churning going on in his stomach.

Hanji was in his kitchen, humming to herself and dancing while staring into his fridge. She turned to smile at him, but continued without answering.

“Okay, whatever,” Levi grumbled. He went to walk into the kitchen—to see exactly what the hell Hanji had done—but she held out a spatula to bar his way.

“Go sit down while I make breakfast,” Hanji ordered. “It’ll be done soonish.”

“Hanji,” he warned, “Let me in my fucking kitchen or so help me I will push you out the goddamn window.” He glared at her and she just stared back before bursting out into laughter.

“There’s no need to be grumpy. Stay there.” She backed into the kitchen, still holding out her spatula to stop him. Levi just rolled his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood to argue. Actually he was trying to figure out exactly how the hell she was so fucking chipper. While he was distracted, Hanji picked up a mug from the counter and held it out to him in her free hand.

“I made you some tea, so sit down and relax.”

Levi took the mug from her hands, eyeing it dubiously. His stomach still wasn’t completely settled, but he still took a sip without breaking eye contact. He had learned a long time ago to never trust her with food, and most definitely not his tea. It was lukewarm and over brewed but at least this time Hanji hadn’t dumped anything weird into it.

“It’ll do,” Levi mumbled.

“Now sit down and let me be a good best friend.”

Levi didn’t take her advice, instead heading towards the extra closet. He immediately reached for the gloves, putting them on before doing anything else. He needed to clean everything, to get the itch from under his skin. He began grabbing what he needed—Clorox wipes, Windex, Lysol wipes, and rug cleaner, nothing less—but paused with his hand on the vacuum.

Vacuuming early in the morning, even with a horrible headache, didn’t usually bother him, but Eren was probably asleep if the kid was even in his room. Levi was pretty sure he and Hanji had gone to bed far past midnight, and Eren would have shown up after them. Levi shrugged and left the vacuum in the closet; he could do that later anyway.

As he was wiping down the table he could hear Hanji banging around in the kitchen, but he refused to think about the mess she was making. He would just clean that up later, along with his room, and the bathroom for good measure. He could probably bully Eren into cleaning his room too, or letting Levi clean it for him.

“You look downright devious when you clean.” Hanji said, interrupting his thoughts. “I can’t tell if you’re having fun or you want to kill someone.” She walked out the kitchen to stand in front of him.

“Both,” Levi answered simply. He paused his motions to look up at her and belatedly realized she was still wearing the same clothes as the day before. “What are you cooking?”

“Breakfast casserole, an old family recipe, and I’m not gonna tell you what’s in it.”

“Of course you’re not.” Levi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Go take a shower when you put it in the oven then. There’s sweats and t-shirts in my dresser, and towels under the sink in the bathroom.”

“I’m supposed to be taking care of you, not the other way around,” Hanji grumbled.

“Well you smell like a fucking corpse, so you taking a shower will help both of us.”

“Whatever you say, captain clean.” She said as she disappeared into his room. Hanji came back out with a bundle of clothes and stopped before heading into the bathroom. “Don’t forget about the casserole,” she called out before closing the door behind her.

Levi sighed and continued wiping the table. After that was done he moved to the kitchen and began washing the dishes. He could see the mostly full bottles of alcohol sitting on the counter from the corner of his eye. Levi wanted to throw them away and forget they had ever existed, but even he realized what a waste of money that would be.

He heard the creak of a door opening, and turned to see Eren coming out of his room. The kid was still in his pajamas, and he was caught in the middle of a yawn. Maybe if Levi ignored him then, Eren would leave and he could have more than ten minutes alone. At least he could vacuum the floor now.

“Good morning,” Eren slurred out as he walked past Levi towards the fridge. He grabbed a soda—Levi had no clue how he could drink that so early—and laid down on the couch. Well, at least he was quiet. Levi went back to the dishes, while Eren turned on the TV and for five minutes, he had peace.

“What are you cooking?” Eren asked, seemingly a bit more awake. “It smells good in here.”

“Breakfast casserole.”

“What kind?”

“I don’t know.”

Levi had plenty of reason to be irritated, but not at Eren, and somehow the kid’s mere presence was annoying him. It didn’t help that Levi could feel Eren’s eyes burning holes into his back either. Maybe he needed another cup of tea. Maybe he needed to finish cleaning the kitchen.

“Are you alright?” Eren asked. “You seem kind of angry.”

Levi sighed and put the last pieces of silverware in the dishwasher. He stripped off his gloves and walked over to stand behind the couch where Eren was still watching him. They stood in a tense silence, until Levi slowly brought his hand to rest on Eren’s hair. Eren’s eyes widened and darted away from Levi’s face to the arm resting on top of his head.

Eren’s face, from the confused scrunch of his nose to the slight reddening of his cheeks, was probably the funniest thing Levi had seen all day, but what was even better was pushing Eren backwards, so that the idiot rolled off the couch and onto the ground.

“Stop staring, dimwit.”

“Wha—I wasn—” Eren spluttered as he tried to right his center of balance. “I don’t stare!”

Levi just rolled his eyes in response and walked away. Maybe that was going a little too far, but Levi could feel his mood elevating—although it could be due to the pills he had taken earlier—and Eren’s dumbass face was worth it.

“I was just worried, jeez,” Eren mumbled just loud enough for Levi to hear. He was debating whether that needed a response when the oven timer went off. Well, whatever. There was no need to pick on the poor kid too much.

“Food’s done,” Hanji sung as she exited the bathroom. Levi spun around to glare at her.

“Holy shit,” Eren’s hand was clutched over his heart. He looked between Hanji and Levi. “Are you both scheming to scare me to death?”

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t realize you were awake.” Hanji smiled, “But what did Levi do?”

Levi let Eren explain himself, while he pulled the casserole out the oven. He had two loud idiots in his apartment, a horrible headache, and still hadn’t made himself a cup of tea that wasn’t shitty, and he was finding it very hard to look on the bright side of things.

“Go sit down and let me handle that,” Hanji said as she reached for the pan. Levi let her have it. He made it to the living room and let himself fall into the armchair. He still needed to clean, but he was still tired as fuck too. Levi heard Hanji’s steps coming closer and looked up—only to meet Eren’s eyes.

Eren smile sheepishly, his ears turning red. “Okay, maybe I do stare a little bit.”

“A little?”

“Levi, stop teasing the poor kid.” Hanji interrupted as she shoved a plate into his hands. She turned to Eren and did the same to him. “And I told you to tell me when he was being an asshole.”

“He’s not that bad.” Eren conceded. “And people do tell me I stare too much.”

Why was Eren giving in so easily? And _people_? How many other fucking people did the idiot stare holes into? Why did he even care? There was no reason for Levi to be so damned shocked.

“Don’t feel obligated to defend him Eren,” Hanji said as she plopped herself next to Eren. “He’s my best friend in the whole world and I know that under his asshole personality he’s super nice, but he’s still an asshole first and foremost.”

“Will there ever be a time when you can complement me without insulting me first?”

“When you actually give _anyone_ an honest compliment,” Hanji retorted.

“So,” Eren said with a full mouth, “never?”

Hanji started laughing, while Levi just ignored them. They were both fucking idiots. And, yeah, Levi was definitely going to have to wipe the table down again, and now he was going to make both of them help him clean up, but the feeling of dirtiness was more of an annoying bug bite rather than a full out rash, and he could deal with that at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally an update! Hanji's arc is mostly done and the next one about to start with twice the awkward staring and feelings. I'm on winter break, so the next update will be within a week, but I won't be able to give a set schedule until I start school again.  
> Thanks to everyone who sent me encouragement for my finals and merry Christmas!


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interviews were hell, Hanji was too clingy, and Eren was weird.

Reading through almost a hundred resumes from desperate college graduates and out of work people hoping to get a foot into the best hospital in town was hell. Picking out less than fifteen resumes that fit the qualifications and didn’t sound annoying was like puking and having diarrhea at the same time. And conducting those interviews on three hours of sleep was like having to take a shit all day and when you finally have the time to sit on the toilet the poop won’t come out.

All in all, Levi was having a terrible day, but at least he was almost fucking done. After asking eleven—the twelfth person hadn’t show up and the odd number irked him the most—overdressed people the same recycled interview questions, with results varying from boring to horrible stupid, he wanted nothing more than to go home and lay in his nice bed.

Rambunctious knocking broke him out of his thoughts and Hanji walked in without waiting for him to say anything—like normal. He rolled his eyes and continued to read through the last of the papers piled on his desk.

“Long day, I see,” She pranced into his office and sat on the edge of his desk. “Find anyone promising?”

“Somewhat. No one was completely hopeless at least.”

“One them—the short blonde girl—was talking to Armin for a while and it sounded like they were flirting quite a lot.” Hanji wriggled her eyebrows for an added effect.

“Hmm,” Levi hummed. He knew exactly which one Hanji was talking about—even if he didn’t quite remember the name—but he didn’t quite feel like mindless gossip at that moment.

“Maybe if they both worked here, then we could have a cute little office romance.”

“Armin’s leaving in December, and he doesn’t even work here,” he reminded her. “If you want an office romance, then go talk to Petra.”

“Don’t crush my hopes and dreams like that. Don’t take me away from my fantasy world.”

“There’s no other way for me to enjoy life,” he deadpanned.

“You know, I was going to treat you to a cup of tea or even dinner, but if you’re going to be like that…” Hanji stood and stretched. She slowly walked to the door, while not so subtly looking over her shoulder for Levi’s reaction.

She had been offering him gifts for a full week and he was starting to get more than a little tired of it. He wasn’t one to turn down free things from his friends, but not when it was from some sort of misplaced sense of guilty or whatever. At least she hadn’t come back to his apartment, which meant that whatever home issues she was having were probably dealt with.

“I’ll pass,” Levi said, “I’m heading straight home in a few.”

Hanji stopped walking when he first spoke, and once his words registered she turned around to pout at him. “I don’t understand how you have so many great friends and all you want to do is lay around at home.”

“I don’t understand how you constantly surround yourself with people and noise, and yet we’re still friends somehow.”

“Opposites attract. If you weren’t short, angry, a clean freak, totally not my type, and gay as hell, then I would be head over heels for you.” When Levi glared at her, she just continued, “Although, there is a certain brunette who compliments you well, that also happens to be living with you. If I were you, I would take advantage of his cute little crush.”

Through the whole of their conversation, Levi had been steadily reading through papers—with the occasional disbelieving look thrown at her—but his hand stopped at what she was insinuating. “I am not hooking up with the _college_ student that is _living_ with me. I’m through with sleeping with roommates. It happened once and look at me now, six years down the line and single again.”

“So, what I’m hearing is that you have no problem with Eren himself, but just that he’s a little younger and living with you?”

“I knew I shouldn’t have told you anything about him. Fuck off, Hanji. I’m not interested in him.”

“You know,” Hanji continued as if she hadn’t heard him, “I heard through the grapevine that Eren might have a new place to stay in the near future, so that’s one worry out of the way.”

Why hadn’t Eren told him that himself? Not that Levi cared all that much, but as the person who was housing him, he felt that he should be the first person to know when the master bedroom—that he missed a lot more than he was willing to admit—would finally be free again. He should definitely know before Hanji at least.

“Good for him,” Levi said nonchalantly. “Any other lackluster news you want to share?”

“Everyone’s meeting up at Maria’s next Wednesday and we would love to see our reclusive friend.”

“You just saw me at your party, which was a week ago.”

“It was almost two weeks ago, and we need to plan for the Thanksgiving party.”

“That’s bullshit and we both know it.” Levi sighed. “But fine; I’ll be there, as long as you get out of my office so I can finish filling out these papers and leave.”

“Yes, sir.” Hanji gave him a mock salute. She was halfway out his door when she stopped. “But really, Eren’s horribly cute. You should go for that while you’re still not _too_ old for him.” Before Levi could throw a retort at her, she was gone. Instead he settled for another irritated sigh and settled back to working.

 

After another hour, Levi’s shift was finally over, and he immediately drove home, took a much needed shower, and made himself a cup of his favorite tea. Eren was thankfully nowhere to be seen, so he grabbed a blanket and stretched out on the couch with the stupid book he hadn’t had time to finish. It was relaxing and silent, and then Levi heard the front door opening and had a strong urge to throw his book at Eren’s annoying face.

“Good afternoon,” Eren said as he set his bag in the armchair.

Well, it didn’t look like Eren was leaving him alone anytime soon. Levi made a noncommittal noise and continued reading. He could hear Eren moving around the house, but he didn’t look up, not even when Eren finally settled down and sat in the armchair across from him. It was silent, but it was a comfortable quiet that Levi wasn’t really used to with Eren. He would always talk at Levi, watch TV, hum, sing, tap his foot, or generally makes some sort of noise; it was like Eren couldn’t help himself. Silent wasn’t something Levi got when Eren was around, so he peeked over the edge of his book—because obviously there was _something_ wrong with Eren—and nearly laughed out loud.

The idiot kid had a look of intense concentration, his eyebrows furrowed and an intense light in his eyes as he started down at the book in his hands. His hair was tied back into a little ponytail, but even then ever few seconds he would irritably push back a few wayward strands. He was mouthing words to himself, and Levi could just imagine the angry almost whining voice he used usually. Eren flipped through back through the pages roughly, and when he found whatever he was looking for his eyes brightened up again with triumph.

Levi had never seen anyone read with so much animation, and almost wondered if it was tiring to be so energetic and lively. Eren seemed to have settled down after his mild meltdown, but he was frowning again. Eren bit his lip and Levi could see him twisting around his lip ring with his tongue. Then Eren seemed to notice the attention directed at him and looked up to lock eyes with Levi. They stared at one another in a strangely tense air, Eren’s eyes wide in surprise and Levi silently thankful for his natural poker face.

“What..?” Eren murmured the word quietly but trailed off. “Is there…?”

“You were spazzing out over your book,” Levi supplied. “It was very distracting.”

“Oh,” he sounded disappointed, and then actually digested what Levi had said, his face turning a bright shade of red. “I was just looking for a passage that relates to this passage and its totally foreshadowing something but I couldn’t figure it out, and this book’s just really confusing and I don’t like it that much so I was getting a little angry with it,” Eren said in a rush, and then added, “Sorry. A lot of people say that I get too into what I’m reading. Mikasa and Armin actually recorded me for an hour and made me watch it afterwards.” He let out a chuckle. “It was actually pretty funny—and mildly insulting.”

Levi vaguely wondered why he had never noticed Eren’s facial animation, seeing as he always insisted on sitting in the living room to read. “It’s certainly interesting to watch.”

“Please don’t watch me.” Eren seemed vaguely embarrassed, if the fact that he wouldn’t Levi’s eyes and the slight blush still present on his cheeks was anything to go by. “It’s bad enough with all my friends teasing me about it.”

This was a new reaction; Levi was more used to Eren fighting back with him, not curling up in mortification. “You tell me to stop, but you constantly stare at me. I think you’re being a hypocrite there, Eren.”

“I told you I didn’t mean to,” his voice had change to a high pitched whining. “I like watching people, and you’re hard to read and really interesting so I—” Eren cut himself off abruptly and Levi found himself being the one flabbergasted.

Maybe he had pushed Eren a little too far, and he had no clue what possessed him to do so. Levi lifted up his cup, but when he found it empty, he stood and walked towards the kitchen. While he filled the kettle up for another cup, he tried not to think about how maybe Hanji had put some ludicrous ideas into his subconscious mind causing him to say some odd things. Or maybe he was just tired and Eren’s weirdly quiet behavior got on his nerves. Whatever it was, Levi was going to blame Hanji and stop talking.

“Hanji told me you might have found a place to stay soon.” Fuck. Strike that out. Levi’s shit spewing filter had cut out—probably while hearing the shit his interviewees tried to let pass as the truth—and he had no control over what he was saying obviously.

“Huh?” Eren said with his usual elegance. “Oh, that.”

Levi walked back into the living room and sat down just so Eren could see him roll his eyes. “Yes, that.”

“You’re being more of a dick than usual today,” Eren grumbled as though Levi wasn’t sitting right there and could hear him.

That was the reaction Levi was used to. “Just answer the question.”

“Well, a few of my friends are graduating this semester, and one of them would be moving, so she was going to let me take over her lease, but that wouldn’t be until mid-December. I was looking for somewhere that would let me move in immediately, but everywhere I’ve looked either is horrible or too expensive because it’s the middle of the semester.” He sighed. “Basically, I’ve always had a place to stay, but I wanted to find something earlier, so I didn’t have to impose on you longer than I needed.”

“You worry about the stupidest shit.” Levi went on despite the angry look Eren shot at him. “You can stay until you find somewhere else. I said that from the beginning and nothing has changed since. There was no reason for you to rush around if you had somewhere to stay already.”

Eren opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but closed it and looked down. The kettle whistled and Levi was halfway off the couch before Eren spoke.

“You’re really talkative today, Levi.” His smile seemed wrong somehow, and something told Levi that wasn’t what Eren had intended to say at first.

“I’m always talkative,” he responded. He didn’t ask, but Levi wasn’t going to pretend he wasn’t at least a little worried. But then Eren laughed in response and everything seemed to be level between them again.

Levi brought them both passion fruit green tea, Eren set down his book, turned the TV on, and continued to talk at Levi. And later that evening when Eren made them both something for dinner, Levi couldn’t shake the idea that maybe it was better with a bit of noise, at least for the time being. Eren wouldn’t be there for much longer anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The notes I had for this chapter literally said "cute chapter of fluff." I didn't quite get all I wanted in but whatever, at least I finally got this chapter up and going. Lately I've been having horrible writer's block, along with starting classes up again horrible colds that won't go away, and doing job interviews, so that's been the cause for the lateness. Hopefully now that I have notes for the next few chapters (which will be hella fun to write) I can get back on a weekly schedule. I'm gonna tentatively say that chapters will be up by mondays at the latest, but I won't make any more promises on that :?  
> Also thanks to everyone for sticking with me even though Ive been so unreliable lately. Sorry for that.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi and Hanji have a talk. Again. His friends are idiots.

Eren was spending much more time in the apartment than Levi was used to. He was consistently on the couch with papers spread out—sometimes on the floor too—and Levi couldn’t help but to notice that Eren really did do everything, even when he was quiet, with the same high level of activity. It was almost like the poor kid didn’t sleep, and—after looking back on his own college days—it was probable.

 On the days that Eren would still be in the same spot when Levi went to sleep and when he woke up, Levi took pity on him and made him a cup of tea or something to eat. As long as he ignored the lingering gaze and the slight redness on Eren’s cheeks every time he went out of his way to be nice, then it was fine. Obviously Eren realized his stupid crush on a man ten years his senior was bound to go nowhere, and was just dealing with it in silence.

Although Eren still insisted on talking his ear off, so maybe not. He knew more than necessary about the idiot, from the fact that he was getting less hours at the restaurant, to his dating history. Somehow Eren always seemed to find a way to go off on a tangent about his life. It was probably some sort of way to avoid doing his schoolwork. The idiot complained as though he wasn’t getting anything done, but that was definitely his own fault.

“Levi, sir?”

Levi couldn’t help but to drop the pen that he had been signing papers with at the sudden intrusion.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Petra said. She was halfway in and halfway out, unsure whether to proceed. “I knocked, but you didn’t answer, so I—”

“Its fine,” he interrupted. “That was my fault.” After he retrieved his pen, he gave her a questioning look. She seemed as distracted as he was a few moments ago. “What did you want?”

“I’m going on my break, and wanted to know if you wanted a cup of tea when I get back?”

“No, thank you.”

Petra was too nice for her own good. She hesitated, but nodded and went on her way. Her once speedy walk had definitely slowed down, and Levi made sure she sat at her desk for most of her shift. Levi sighed, letting his head rest on his desk. He needed to file the paperwork for new hires, so he could go ahead and begin training them. Petra was actually starting to _look_ pregnant and in all reality it was a little morbid for someone with a person growing in their stomach to be looking at corpses all day.

But first he would have to decide who he was hiring. Most of those he had interviewed were fresh college graduates who were trying to find something to do while they applied to graduate school. Levi wasn’t stupid enough to believe that anyone really wanted to be a mortician, but he at least hoped that whoever he hired wouldn’t immediately leave in search of bigger and better things—of which there was many.

He opened the files on his computer and scrolled through them again. All he had to do was narrow them down, from eleven to six, to four, to two. Maybe he could pull some strings and have three new employees so that someone could take a day off without them automatically being shorthanded. Or he could start taking interns again.

“So Levi,” Hanji strolled in, without knocking—not for the first time and probably not the last, “me and Armin were talking earlier, and he says Eren hasn’t dated anyone in a while, and that he hasn’t been hanging out with his friends as much recently. Do you know what that means?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “Obviously, he’s been hanging around your apartment to see you more often.”

Okay, no. On the list of things Levi wasn’t dealing with, _that_ was at the top of the list. That was currently the whole of the fucking list. “Hanji,” he said flatly, “Sit down.”

Despite there being no other chair in his office besides the one he currently had his ass in, Hanji immediately obeyed and plopped onto the floor.

“I’m going to tell you, once again, that I am in no way interested in Eren. At all. He is staying in my home temporarily and after that I doubt I’ll ever see him again.”

“That’s a little harsh, though.”

“And it’s probably true. He’s a college student and I am a fully functioning adult. The chances of us ever crossing paths again is slim. Now stop threatening Armin for information about things that don’t matter.”

Through the whole of his talk Hanji’s face had gone from her normal obsessive happiness to a point where she wasn’t even looking at Levi, her face instead pointed at the floor.

“I’m sorry. I went too far.” She leaned back until her head rested on the wall and slid down. “I didn’t listen and got too obsessed with an idea, and I pushed it on you. I’m just a horrible fucking friend.”

At that point Levi couldn’t see her face, but it was pretty damned obvious that there was something wrong with her. Whatever misplaced guilt she had was finally coming to the surface.

He walked around his desk to where she was laying and when she still didn’t look at him, he kicked her gently in the side.

“What’s this really about, shit face?” Levi glared down at her. “You’ve been bribing me all week and now you’re setting me up with some idiot who’s so young that his mom just taught him to wipe his own ass.”

She almost cracked a smile, but it was over as soon as it began. “I’ve been really fucked up recently and I just dragged you down with me. I know you don’t drink and I still made that stupid deal with you and I’ve been trying to make it better but I’m just a manipulative person and I force you to do things and I never know when not to stop. And now you’re angry with me.”

Levi rolled his eyes and kicked her again for good measure. She was making more of something that he really didn’t give a shit about. It was a common occurrence in their friendship, but most of the time it ended with him telling her to fuck off—usually in mild annoyance, and on one occasion anger—not with her laying on his office floor whining.

“You’re a pushy idiot who doesn’t know when to stop—that’s true—but you’re not manipulative. You’re not smart enough for that, fuck face.”

“But I basically forced your hand.” She still looked confused, and he almost kicked her again.

“And what you have done if I had said no and refused your deal?”

Hanji paused and thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I knew you would probably said yes.”

“Exactly. And have you drunk since then?”

“No.”

“And are things better with Moblit?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then I don’t know why you’re trying to give yourself more shit than you need to handle. I don’t drink because I don’t want to. I made that deal with you because I wanted to.”

Hanji didn’t say anything for the longest moment. Then she started laughing.

Levi was done. He had spoken too soon; they weren’t friends and he didn’t know why he tried so hard for an idiot. Hanji was just an annoying bug on his floor. He walked back to his desk and sat down.

“Sorry, sorry.” Hanji had calmed down. “I sometimes forget that you were once a cool punk rebel, so when you say grandiose things like that, it takes me back to our college days.”

“I am not dignifying that with a response.” Nope. Not going there. College was nowhere near the worst time in his life, but he was better off not remembering the fact that he had a proverbial chip on his shoulder and a horrible fashion sense.

 “But thanks, really. I’m sometimes an idiot about things.”

“Don’t call yourself an idiot. If you do it, it takes all of the fun out of me calling you an idiot.”

“It’s amazing how nice you are when you’re being a dick. I think you’re the only person in the world able to pull that off.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Levi continued with his work, and Hanji seemed content to lay on his office floor, so he let her be. Considering the time, she had probably already clocked out, so he could care less what she did, that is, until she spoke again.

“Eren’s bi, you know. I would totally tap that.” He could tell by the lilt of her voice that she was saying that purely to spite him.

“You’re married, Hanji.”

“Well, duh. This is purely hypothetical speculation. And hypothetically, you can at least admit that he’s cute, and has an ass that just won’t quit.”

“You’re fucking gross.”

“Oh look, Petra’s back,” Hanji said with the voice that dripped vicious intent, “I think I should tell your highly esteemed worker about your college days.”

“You’re not manipulative, you’re a fucking blackmailer. Don’t bring her into this.” he deadpanned. “Besides, she’s quitting anyway.”

“Don’t remind me of that travesty. And don’t change the subject.”

“The subject was shitty.”

“You’re shitty.”

Seeing as Hanji was _still_ laying on his floor, he figured he could ignore her until he was done with figuring out his hiring information. After reviewing one more time that he was making the right choice, he sent off the information to his boss. He would have to call and send emails later, but at that moment he didn’t feel like it. He was tired, and although in the way of bodies it had been a slow day, the hiring process and talking to Hanji had given him a slight headache.

 Levi grabbed his black jacket from the back of his chair, and stood.

“Get up Hanji, we’re going out for food.”

“Alright, alright.” She wiggled around a little before she sat up and stretched. “You know, the floor is actually pretty comfortable.”

“And fucking filthy. You forget that part.” He still helped her up when she reached out though, but the moment he opened his door and she spotted Petra she was gone, cooing at the woman’s baby bump. Levi left them to talk. Hanji would catch up when she was ready.

He had just left through the side entrance, and Levi almost wished he didn’t look for incoming cars as he crossed through the parking lot because with his luck, of fucking course Erwin was coming out of the hospital as well. He froze, stuck between turning around and acknowledging his presence and going to his car without saying anything. In the next moment, though he could tell Erwin saw him as well, and, fuck, he had to go over there and talk to him now.

“Good evening.” Erwin said as soon as they got into talking distance. “Are you just getting off?”

“No, I’m still working, just a dinner break with Hanji.”

Erwin flashed him a knowing smile. “You spoke with her, didn’t you? She seems to have slowed down a bit. And she seems in better spirits.”

Levi scoffed. He had almost forgotten that Erwin was the one who told him to talk to that shit face. “I did, and I just got finished giving her another talking down to.”

“What’d she do to annoy you this time?”

“The usual,” he said shortly. Levi had no inclination to share the deal he had made—as far as he was concerned that was Hanji’s secret to tell to who she wanted to—and he definitely didn’t want to say that she was pushing him into dating a college kid.

“Are you going to Maria’s for dinner?”

Levi shrugged. “That was the plan.”

“If you want, you and Hanji can join Mike and I at the new Thai place that opened on Waters. That’s actually where I was headed.”

Levi mulled it over. As horribly stilted and awkward their current conversation was, it wasn’t awful. And maybe a tiny bit of him did miss Erwin. A little. “Sure.”

Erwin actually smiled at that. “I’ll text you the address.”

“Alright.”

 Erwin gave a little wave, and they parted ways. Levi replayed the conversation in his head, trying to gauge if he had said anything out of character or too hostile, but he knew he was just being a fucking idiot.

He was suddenly tense and irritated without reason, tapping his foot in a rhythm as he waited for Hanji to come out so he could tell her where to meet them. Just as he was contemplating going back and fetching her, she came strolling out. When she came closer and saw the look on his face, her smile lessened somewhat.

“Are you alright?” She had the best intentions at heart, Levi knew that.

“Yep.” Maybe agreeing had been a bad idea, but it was obviously too late. “There’s been a change in plans.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOA this is actually on time???? I shocked myself with this chapter and once again Hanji's part went on longer than I wanted it to. But they talked about Eren, so there's that.  
> Next chapter should be around the same time as far as updating, but just a warning I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed on the thirteenth so I doubt I'll be doing anything that weekend (if you cant tell I am scared out of my mind)


End file.
